Q & A with Cheryl Andrews, president and CEO of Cheryl Andrews Marketing Communications
Q & A with Cheryl Andrews
President and CEO of Cheryl Andrews Marketing Communications
www.cam-pr.com
By Jose Carlos de Santiago & Yndiana Montes
As a leading company in the field of public relations for the travel, hotel, luxury and real estate sectors for over two decades, Cheryl Andrews Marketing Communications works with several destinations, brands and countless travel industry companies from the Caribbean, Florida and Central America, and the company is a major presence in all events planned by the Caribbean Tourism Organization and other regional fairs and tradeshows, including Pow Wow in the U.S.
Q: Where is your company based? When was it founded?
A: In Coral Gables, Florida. I founded the company in the mid 80s, so we have 26 years of strong hospitality deliverables and know-how.
Q: How many Caribbean countries does your company work with?
A: We represent three destination tourist boards: Trinidad & Tobago, a 16 year partnership; the Nevis Tourism Authority, that we’ve represented for 11 years, and the Montserrat Tourism Board that we’ve been worked with for 10 years. CAMC has resort clients in many of the islands and in Florida plus several business to business hospitality and related clients including Baptist Health International, Intelity and Cruise Planners.
Q: How do you manage to work with the private sector in the Caribbean?
A: It’s very similar to the private sector in the United States. Some of our clients in the Caribbean are actually owned by U.S. companies, like one wonderful resort we represent in Turks & Caicos, in which the owners are Americans, though the general manager has been living in Turks over the past 16 or 17 years.
We represent Bucuti Beach Resort in Aruba, and the general manager, Ewald Biemans is Austrian, and has been living in Aruba for about 30 years now. He’s a businessman as well as a hotelier, so he understands global business and he’s so far ahead of most private industry people in the Caribbean in terms of sustainable tourism, so he’s very sensitive to his property, his island and his guests that he’s a joy to work with.
Q: What do you make of Facebook, Twitter and other Internet tools as some of the main communications ways today for business?
A: It is critical that countries, destinations and independent hotels have a social media strategy and platform because most Americans now are finding their travel information on the Internet and there’s nothing like a referral from a friend on Facebook or on Twitter to get the news out. It’s something that’s moving at the speed of light and we help our clients take advantage of every opportunity, whether branding or publicizing events or helping to promote sales.
Q: Do you make use of those platforms for your clients?
A: We do. We work with many clients on their Facebook and Twitter accounts, with their social media accounts. Certainly, corporate people and our client destinations have their own personnel and hire their own people. With clients that have in-house team members handle social media, we often support with ideas, contests, photos—every bit of smart outreach helps!
