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The Group Travel Leader Going on Faith Select Traveler

CVBs are packed with personality

Newport, R.I.’s CVB also took a personal approach with its website’s profiles of its three national sales managers.

To emphasize their knowledge of the destination, the CVB has designated Jennifer Pitt, Anne Roberts and Patricia Smurro as “destination experts.”

Each has her own page, with the requisite job title, sales territories and contact information. Each also is pictured in a casual photo. Smurro grips a giant lobster; Pitt hugs a surfboard; and Roberts is shown along the Cliff Walk, one of her favorite spots in Newport.

But it is the brief bios that personalize each sales manager.

Meeting planners learn that Pitt, a Newport native, has worked in the hospitality industry since age 14, when she sold T-shirts at a local shop, and that Smurro, a New York native, lives dangerously by rooting for the Yankees in a city where the Red Sox rule.

Tim Walsh, vice president, sales, said that bureau wants to make it clear that the destination experts are part of the 100 percent complimentary services the bureau offers meeting planners.

“That is what they are — destination experts,” he said. “When planners are coming into Newport, they need to give the CVB a call. The experts can tell them what will work best for their group.”

www.discovernewport.org