Last week, TravelPulse Canada joined the Air Canada Vacations Mega Fam to the small and beautiful island of St. Lucia. With only 180,000 residents and just over 250 square miles, it’s a preferred destination for those looking for something a little different than typical Caribbean islands.

“It’s just one of those destinations that is just so unexpected,” says Tiffany Howard, CEO St. Lucia Tourism Authority. “We all think of the Caribbean as sunset and sea and everyone expects that’s just what it is. But when you come to St Lucia and you see this is an island with Pitons, it has sulphur springs, an active volcano, it has a rainforest, there is just so much going on this little island that it’s unbelievable.”

It’s these island offerings that are focus in showcasing St Lucia to Canadians and has the Tourism Authority making a return to Canada after being out of market for a few years.

“We want to see how we can best immerse ourselves into the travel trade again, because for a little bit we were out of Canada. We weren’t really doing our part, so with the new team we have in place, we recognize this is our opportunity now to re-establish ourselves in the Canadian market.”

One of the big tools is their St. Lucia experts program, where agents can go online and do all of the training while having the opportunity to go on the FAMs to the island. The program has been translated into multiple languages, including French and Spanish, something Howard says ensures they’ve covered the gamut in terms of making sure agents have all of the tools and resources they can have to be able to sell St Lucia effectively.

“We know there is so much more we can do: getting out to see our agents, making sure we’re covering all our shows, making sure any sort of relationship they want to build with us is a success”, says Howard. “You know, we are really old fashioned; we’re a small, boutique destination so for us this is about making sure if they want to use our campaigns and initiatives, we can help to ensure their areas and communities are able to as well.”

The island also is seeing hotel development in the pipeline: a managing contract was just assumed for Rex Resorts including turning one Rex into a Starfish, a Fairmont is currently under development, as are many other hotels that aren’t able to be made public just yet.

“You can have completely different experiences whether you’re in the north or south of the island. It’s all about authenticity – here, you can really live like a Lucian.”