On January 17th, Tahiti Tourisme North America (TTNA) attended the Stella Symposium, held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA

Throughout the one-day networking event, 52 associates from Stella’s operations, sales, reservations and marketing personnel were updated and trained on the destination of Tahiti.

The Stella representatives were divided into small rotating groups and were given tabletop presentations from each participating supplier and Tourism office representing the South Pacific products and destinations.

Other participating Tahiti partners in attendance included Air Tahiti Nui, Accor/Sofitel Hotels, InterContinental Resorts French Polynesia, SPM Hotels, Resorts & Spa, Le Maitai Hotels and Haumana Cruises.

TTNA attended the annual Atlanta Travel Expo held in Atlanta this past January.

This year’s show, open to professionals and consumers, was held at the Cobb Galleria Center from January 23 to 25, 2009. 

The foot traffic was a bit slow over the two-day show and did not reach the expected attendance of 5000 consumers and travel trade visitors. In addition, out of the 200 expected exhibitors, only 100 attended. 

The 2009 New York Times Travel Show took place from February 6 to February 8 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in the heart of Manhattan.

The New York Times Travel Show allows visitors to discover every corner of the globe through hundreds of booths featuring domestic and international destinations, resorts, hotels and adventures.

It is the largest travel trade and consumer show in the United States.

Many partners joined TTNA in our booth, including Bora Bora Lagoon Resort & Spa, SPM Hotels, Resorts & Spa, Air Tahiti Nui, and CPTM/Aranui.

Although fewer consumers attended the show this year compared to last year, visitors were very knowledgeable about our destination and our national airline, Air Tahiti Nui.

The 14th Annual LA Times Travel Show, the largest travel show in the western region of the US, was held for the first time at the Los Angeles Convention Center from February 14 to 15 (the show was previously held in Long Beach).

The show organizers exceeded their attendance record with over 22,000 visitors and 550 exhibitors. Since the show had outgrown its Long Beach home in 2008, it was relocated in 2009 to the Los Angeles Convention Center.

There was a net increase in attendance and exhibitors for the 2009 show of 10% and 37% respectively. The booth traffic was very busy over the two days. We were extremely pleased to have three Tahiti based suppliers join us in our booth along with locally based suppliers.

The partners that participated included: Bora Bora Lagoon Resort & Spa, SPM Hotels, Resorts and Spa, CPTM/Aranui with brochure participation from Air Tahiti Nui.

The Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention was held from March 16 to 19, 2009 at the Miami Beach Convention Center, in Miami.

The conference was solely open to trade and cruise professionals. The partners in the booth included Air Tahiti Nui, Archipelogoes, Port Autonome de Papeete, the Station de Pilotage and Tahiti Cruise Club.

The objectives of this conference for our destination were to reconnect with existing contacts in the cruise industry, to work together to locate new contacts, and to encourage them to include Tahiti in their itineraries.

TTNA participated in the Paul Gauguin Road Show organized by Paul Gauguin Cruises on the US West Coast from March 23 to 27, 2009.

The host cities for the breakfast seminars included Woodland hills, Newport Beach, Anaheim, Palm Desert, and San Diego. Overall, the shows were well attended by retail travel agents and Regent Seven Seas’ repeat customers, who demonstrated high interest in the destination. 

At each show, Roy Grimsland, EVP Sales of Paul Gauguin Cruises, delivered a very informative presentation of the ship and its services along with an overview of the breathtaking sights and activities available in their Tahitian Ports-of-call.

We are pleased to say that 90% of the presentation was dedicated to Tahiti and her Islands.

We are very pleased to bring you the following update reporting the results of our first Tahiti Tiare Agent Conference held in Papeete, Tahiti at the Radisson Plaza Resort Tahiti, on March 17 and 18, 2009.

This year, Tahiti Tourisme North America opted to dedicate its usual Tahiti Travel Exchange exclusively to its Tiare agents. The feedback has been very positive from our partners. We're pleased to announce that we had 45 Tiare Agents, 6 North American based Tour Operators, and 50 Tahiti Suppliers from the islands of Tahiti.

The main purpose of the conference was to deliver an in-depth workshop presentation to our Tiare Agents on the destination, to give our agents the opportunity to meet with local suppliers and partners, and to learn more about Tahiti’s cultural and historical background.

The program included a 1 ½ day conference with appointment-based meetings with preferred hotel and cruise partners, a tradeshow covered by over 50 U.S. and Tahiti supplier exhibitors and a series of 12 cultural seminars presented by local professionals addressing several topics including Diving, Yachting, Family Pensions and Small Hotels, Activities, Culture and History, Tahitian Cultured Pearls, Migration/Anthropology, Marine Life Diversity, Cruise, Dance, Indigenous Spa Products, and Tahitian Tattoo. 

Several Tour Operators attended the conference as well, including representatives from Classic Vacations, GoGo Worldwide Vacations, Islands Escapes by Goway & Travel 2/ Islands in the Sun, Tahiti Legends and Happy Vacations. 

The agenda of the conference included workshops presented by expert guest speakers, who covered a broad spectrum of Tahitian cultural themes as well as Tahiti’s key niche markets:

• History and Tahiti’s Island Formation & Polynesia’s Settlement - presented by Frank Murphy, co-owner of Tahiti Expeditions

• Migration and Anthropology - presented by Joel Hart, Freelance Cultural Guide

• Tahitian Cultured Pearls or Black Pearls- presented by Paul Sloan, Director of Marketing and Business Development – Gilbert Wane Pearls of Tahiti

• Marine Life Diversity - presented by Dr. Michael Poole, Owner of Dolphin & Whale Watching Expeditions.

• Tahitian Cuisine - presented by Yvonnick Lenoir, Chef of The Radisson Plaza Tahiti Resort

• Tahitian Tattoo - presented by James Samuela, Owner of Moorea Tattoo

• Tahitian Dance - Presented by Tumata Robinson, Owner Tahiti Ora, Les Ateliers de Tumata

• Indigenous Spa Products - presented by Helene Sillinger, Owner of Helene Spa

Two tour operator partners, Tahiti Legends and Happy Vacations, escorted the Tiare travel agents on a familiarization trip. Each fam trip visited several of the islands which included hotel site inspections, land and sea activities, and the opportunity to experience the local culture.

The Tiare agents were offered special hotel rates, discounts on meals, and inter-island fares by industry partners in support of the program and independent fam trips.

The Tahiti Tiare Conference was organized by Tahiti Tourisme North America with the assistance of GIE Tahiti Tourisme, Papeete. The Radisson Plaza Resort Tahiti was essential in organizing this event. In particular, a huge thank you to the Radisson team for their hard work and professionalism. Air Tahiti Nui was also monumental in securing a favorable airfare for the travel agents and suppliers.

We would like to extend a huge mauru’uru roa to our head office and all of our partners for their assistance in organizing an amazing event and the opportunity to showcase our unique islands to the North American Tiare Agents.

We are glad to note that Tahiti Tourisme received positive feedback from the attending agents, who stressed the overall educational benefits of the event and the wonderful opportunity to experience the destination on their own with a traveling companion.

May 5 - 21, 2009: Spring Tahiti Workshop series

The entire month of May is fully dedicated to TTNA’s workshop series. Each Spring, TTNA hits the road visiting many cities across the United States and Canada bringing an in-depth and in-person method of reaching qualified travel agents through our workshop series.

The purpose of these workshops is to attract qualified travel agents who are not yet selling our destination and need more knowledge and selling tools, travel agents who are selling Tahiti and her islands, but are not yet enrolled in the Tiare Specialist Program, and travel agents that are already selling Tahiti, but wish to get updated on new products and renew their knowledge and momentum of selling our islands.

In response to the current economic downturn and reduced budgets for many of our partners, this years’ Workshop series features a morning breakfast format and a shortened presentation program.

Tahiti Tourisme North America also reduced the total number of cities to nine in the U.S. and three in Canada. As the Workshops are still underway, we will update our partners on the outcome of the series once it’s complete.

Our workshops are conducted by TTNA with the involvement of our opt-in partners' representatives from the tour operators, hotels, cruise lines, and airlines.

May 30 - May 31: Long Beach Scuba Show- the Long Beach Convention Center

The scuba Show will host over 200 exhibitors featuring new and revolutionary dive gear, dive travel representatives and scuba experts. This is the largest consumer dive expo in the U.S. 

May 31 - June 6: Signature Educational Tour & Conference - Tahiti/Moorea/Bora Bora

In conjunction with the Signature Travel Network organization, TTNA with the generous support of Air Tahiti Nui and preferred tour operators – Classic Vacations, Pleasant Holidays and Tahiti Legends – are sponsoring 39 select Signature agents on a special educational trip to include the islands of Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora. The conference portion will highlight presentations on the destination and key lifestyle markets along with an industry trade show.

June 17 - 19: Vacation.com Conference & Trade Show - in Las Vegas, NV

This year marks the organization’s 11th annual conference & trade show which will provide in-depth travel information and hands-on training for the member agents of the Vacation.com. This year TTNA will be participating with Travel2/Islands In The Sun.

June 22 - 24: Incentive Travel Exchange - Las Vegas, NV

A premier event for buyers and sellers of incentive travel, this 4th annual ITE will once again bring together pre-qualified hosted buyers and hand selected sellers of incentive travel for two days of networking and pre-arranged one-to-one meetings.  Representing the destination will be TTNA and Air Tahiti Nui.

Sept. 29 - Oct. 01: IT&ME “The Motivation Show”- in Chicago, IL

The Incentive Travel and Meeting Executives “The Motivation Show” is the premier Incentive and Meetings tradeshow event in the United States, held in conjunction with concurrent educational sessions over a three-day period.

October 25 - 27: French Affairs- Maison de La France

This event is arranged by Maison de la France and is the premier annual meeting between French and North American tourism professionals.

November 4 - 7: DEMA – Orlando, FL

DEMA is an international trade only event for the diving, action water sports and adventure travel industries.

December 1 - 3: Luxury Travel Expo – Las Vegas, NV

The Luxury Travel Expo is the only Trade event entirely dedicated to providing suppliers and agents a forum for dialogue and education specific to the luxury market.

December 4 - 5: Signature Travel Network Annual Conference & Tradeshow – Las Vegas, NV. 

Signature’s show include seminars related to client loyalty programs, river cruising, emerging destinations, the latest technology tools, destination training, optimizing customer databases, and consulting fees among other things.