Antigua & Barbuda Tourism Authority grows sales team in Canada

The Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority (ABTA) Canada office is growing its sales team in order to provide stronger support to Canadian travel advisors across the country.

As announced in its March 2023 newsletter, the tourism authority is welcoming new business development managers, Kyle Christian and Gavin Jimenez, to the team.

Mr. Christian, while new to the BDM world, formerly worked with the ABTA’s Canada office as a sales and marketing officer.

Prior to that, he worked in the hospitality industry in Antigua and Barbuda, serving as public relations manager for Sandals Resorts.

He has a decade's worth of experience in media and communications in the hospitality, consumer packaged goods and finance industries. He can be reached at kyle@visitaandb.com.

Mr. Jimenez is a highly-motivated travel marketer with experience in business development for Canadian and international tourism.

With education in marketing and travel and tourism, he began his career in hospitality, tour operators, luxury hotels and continues now as part of the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority team. His email is gavin@visitaandb.com. 

Meanwhile, Shamoi Richards joined the ABTA Canada BDM team just last year.

Mr. Richards has more than eight years of experience in the tourism industry and has worked with the ABTA head office since 2018 as a cruise tourism marketing officer.

He joined the Canada office as a BDM in 2022 and his tourism focus areas are sailing, yachting, and airlift.

He has a wealth of knowledge of Antigua and Barbuda tourism, so feel free to contact him with your questions at shamoi.richards@visitaandb.com. 

Long-time team member Matara Richards remains on the team as a marketing administrative officer.

Matara is an administrative professional who is extremely passionate about her beautiful home Antigua and Barbuda.

She provides overall support for the daily operations of the team, and also leads the romance and heritage and culture focus areas.

Always there to support agents' needs, Matara can be reached at matara.richards@visitaandb.com.

"The Canadian market and our retail partners continue to be important to the success and growth of tourism to Antigua and Barbuda,” Tameka Wharton, director of tourism (ag.) at the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority, Canada region, told PAX. “To that end, we are delighted to add additional BDMs to support our travel agency community in Canada."

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