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American Samoa in ‘Discover America’ shows

American Samoa will take part at next week’s ‘Discover America’ travel trade shows in New Zealand with over 60 exhibits. The territory is part of the delegation under the BrandUSA program, which was created by federal law as a public-private partnership, and the official destination marketing organization of the federal government.

 

American Samoa Visitors Bureau executive director, David Vaeafe said the territory’s participation is part of an ongoing marketing program to educate the international travel trade about the territory being a destination to visit.

 

“The Discover America shows will give us the opportunity to speak directly to over 700 travel agents over the two days” — Feb. 17 in Christchurch and Feb. 18 in Auckland,” he said.

 

Additionally, ASVB is finalizing a partnership program with BrandUSA (Washington DC) that “will see them supplementing our overseas advertising efforts with our travel partners in the New Zealand and Australian market place.”

 

In New Zealand, the territory have partnerships with four travel companies — Air New Zealand Holidays/The AOT Group, Go Holidays, House of Travel and Our Pacific, all of whom started selling American Samoa a couple of years ago.

 

At the Feb. 24th meeting of the federal Interagency Group on Insular Areas (IGIA) in Washington D.C., BrandUSA president and CEO, Christopher L. Thompson, is among the presenters. BrandUSA will discuss the potential to leverage resources with the territories for tourism branding and marketing.

 

Prior to the Discover America event, the ASVB will also participant in the Auckland Flight Centre Travel Expo on Feb. 15 and 16. This event is the largest consumer travel show in New Zealand, said Vaeafe.