>  Current work:

»  I have been working as the International Media Relations Officer for the Quito Visitors' Bureau since January 2007.

I have worked for the organisation since 2004, editing their website and the monthly newsletter in English, but took on a more permanent role in 2007.

For personal news, go here


&   PIPELINE
PROJECTS

I've had an extemely busy time. There's everything to do. But there is a great feeling that Quito is gaining a place on the tourism and media map, and it's an exciting place to be right now. For example, the city made the New York Times Travel "Places to Go in 2008" in December - a great seal of approval from a world authority.

In 2007-8, I have worked in conjunction with the Bureau's representation company in the UK, copywriting for both advertorial and advertising, working on online seminars, attending trade and consumer shows, and liaising with journalists.

I worked on various Bureau promotional projects in the travel industry in the United States and Canada, including a roadshow titled 'Meet Ecuador' in May, and its second part 'See Ecuador' in October. I was also part of the 'Meet Ecuador' roadshow in May 2008 (see photos here). I was responsible for putting together the presentation on Ecuador given by Pancho Dousdebes. All were regarded as great successes.

I worked with my colleagues helping various journalists, travel writers, photographers and film crews who came through the city.

In 2007, the most important of these was probably Travel Channel's 'Passport to Latin America with Samantha Brown'. For more on that, go here. To read this year's press releases, go here.

In 2008, Quito has been doing just as well, with articles on CNN.com and MSN Latino, as well as USA Today and more New York Times coverage.

From 10th to 12th September 2008, Quito and Ecuador hosted the continent's most important travel industry event, Travel Mart Latin America.

The event itself took place over 11 and 12th in the beautifully decorated Centro de Exposiciones in modern Quito, although the city invited participants to spend an extra night for free on the 9th, and organised a 'Quito Special Day' on the 10th (see here for more on that).

In order to entice more foreign 'buyers' to get to know Ecuador, the Organising Committee put together a website for special pre- and post-tours offered by Ecuadorian tour operators participating in the event. I led the creative team for that project and put together the texts for the website - one I'm pretty proud of.

Apart from the business-side of Travel Mart going extremely well - with a record number of appointments and attendees - many people rated this year's event the best ever. There were huge, choreographed social events in the city for both the Opening and Closing Reception. The opening ceremony in the Old Town alone involved over 300 artists!

I was in charge of the Press and Public Relations sub-committee - there were 13 sub-committees in all (!). We organised an international press group 20-strong over two weeks in all, including a producer from Travel Channel International and BBC World's 'Fast Track' programme.

We also generated a lot of press in Ecuador and firmly got the message across about the importance of the event to the tourist industry, and the industry's importance to the country's economy.

President Rafael Correa and Mayor Paco Moncayo both gave good speeches at the Inauguration Ceremony, at which I was honoured to be master of ceremonies (> right).

Find out more about Travel Mart madness here.

I put a lot of energy and thought into the city's promotional website. We restructured and reworked the whole thing in 2007, triplicating the content and hopefully making it a) far more easy to find information, and b) far more inspirational. The new site went live in September. As of late-2008, it is ranked 3rd in google.com when searching for 'Quito' - mission accomplished! Our aim is for 1,000 unique visitors a day by 2009. As of October, we are at 733, but are about to start a Google Adwords campaign and a banner-ad campaign on TripAdvisor.com.

My hope is that it will rank among one of the best 'official' websites worldwide, with great navigation, search capabilities and a degree of interactivity not usually found on such websites. It was a runner-up in the Ecotourism Spotlight Awards run by Planeta.com in 2008.




»  Insight Guides: recently-published new edition of their Ecuador guide which I worked on.

»  Tour leading: I have led various tours in Ecuador and the Galapagos over the last years. Due to my work with the Visitors' Bureau, I won't be leading many tours now, apart from for alumni tours for Cambridge, Oxford and Leicester universities run by IMA. In February 2008, I lead an alumni tour to Antarctica. See images here.