NEW YORK, NY—The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) recently presented Trinidadian Marcia Erskine, managing director of the Kingston-based Marcia Erskine and Associates, and Baz Dreisinger, a freelance writer, with awards of excellence for their efforts in marketing the Caribbean as a premier travel destination. Erskine was presented with the Marcella Martinez award while Dreisinger received the Marcia Vickery-Wallace award.
The recipients, who were chosen because of their commitment to covering and marketing the Caribbean as a premier travel region, were presented with their awards during the CTO’s Caribbean Media Awards Luncheon held at The New Yorker Hotel as part of activities to mark Caribbean Week in New York. The Marcia Vickery-Wallace and Marcella Martinez awards honour the significant achievements of individuals whose work have shared the Caribbean experience with the world.
Established in 2004, the Marcella Martinez Award is presented annually for unparalleled achievement in the design and implementation of successful programmes to strengthen and support Caribbean tourism. The award is named in honour of Jamaican Marcella Martinez, who dedicated her extraordinary career as a public relations professional to the promotion of tourism to the Caribbean. Jamaica’s Deputy of Director of Tourism Donnie Dawson presented this year’s Marcella Martinez Award to Erskine.
He said: “Marcia embodies the spirit behind this award. And those who know her, know that her passion for the region is undeniable. Her impact is far reaching, having developed and implemented public relations support for several tourism related entities including the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association, British Airways, Delta Airlines, BWIA, Half Moon Resort, Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, Hotel Four Seasons, the Wyndham Kingston Hotel as well as ESPN Caribbean.”
In the Caribbean, Erskine served as public relations representative for British Airways, spanning the entire region with responsibility for Jamaica, T&T, Cayman Islands, the Islands of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
She has also led teams of Jamaican hoteliers on overseas marketing missions throughout the Caribbean, the United States and Europe. Her company has had the distinction of representing the Barbados Tourism Authority for several years and during that time hosted a number of Crop Over Festival promotions in Kingston.