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Tourism Department Traveling to Journalists Convention

Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson-Doty at a 2016 Senate hearing (Photo by Barry Leerdam courtesy of the V.I. Legislature)

V.I. Tourism Department officials are traveling to New Orleans for this year’s National Association of Black Journalists convention, Aug. 9-14.

For the seventh consecutive year, the Tourism Department will host the convention’s Founders Reception, where reporters and editors are immersed in a cultural presentation while being updated on what’s new in the destination.

“Participating in NABJ is an important part of building our relationship with the African-American community, and it’s also an integral component of our national outreach,” Commissioner of Tourism Beverly Nicholson-Doty said in a statement. She said black reporters, editors, and producers continue to have a huge impact across the national media landscape.

While in New Orleans, Nicholson-Doty plans to meet with local and national media and address more than 50 travel agents and meeting planners at a travel industry luncheon. The goal is to attract tourism from the state of Louisiana and the south-central USA.

Nicholson-Doty will also participate in a NABJ panel about film and television where she will unveil the Department’s new Real Nice ad campaign. She hopes to exhort producers and directors to consider the U.S. Virgin Islands as a convenient yet exotic location for shooting television shows, commercials, documentaries, and features.

The Tourism Department will also bring two communications students from the University of the Virgin Islands to the convention to participate in educational workshops to sharpen their skills and network with some of the top players in the industry.

Bolongo Bay Beach Resort, Marriott Frenchman’s Reef, and The Buccaneer are supporting the effort with prize giveaways, according to the Tourism Department.

The NABJ annual convention brings together media professionals from across the United States and beyond for networking opportunities, educational sessions, and job recruitment. Founded in Washington, D.C., in 1975, NABJ is the largest organization of journalists of color in the United States. It provides training, career development, and support to black journalists worldwide. NABJ strives for credible journalism that comprehensively portrays the voices and experiences of African-Americans and people from the black diaspora for a society and world that values them, according to the Tourism Department’s statement.

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