Vail Valley Partnership (VVP) today announced that Heather Kerstiens has joined the VVP team as a group sales manager. Heather comes to the Partnership with a wealth of knowledge in meetings and events from her previous position at the Vail Marriott Mountain Resort. As the former Senior Event Manager at the Marriott, Heather worked with clients to plan events, conferences and meetings, many of which were medical-focused groups. Heather joins a team of three other group sales managers including, Kim Brussow, Danielle McNair and Jessica Stevens.
At the Partnership, Heather will dedicate her efforts to bringing Continuing Medical Education (CME) meetings and other medical conferences & groups to the Vail Valley. With a health-conscious community and the fact that health & wellness is an integral component in the lifestyle of its residents, the Vail Valley is increasingly becoming a sought-after destination for medical meetings.
The need for CME meetings is essential with the rapid pace of scientific discovery and medical innovation exponentially rising. CME meetings and other medical conferences are used as a means of communication in order to maintain a well-informed medical community and one that continuously strives to improve their practice and their care of patients. Due to the large number of world-class medical facilities and professionals located in the area, this valley provides an ideal location for health-related gatherings.
“I’m very excited to work with the Vail Valley Partnership team. It’s an exciting opportunity; working and collaborating with the local medical community to facilitate groups & meetings, showcasing our valley and facilities to visiting professionals and helping to develop the growing economic opportunity that is medical meetings,” said Heather Kerstiens, group sales manager at Vail Valley Partnership.
Recruiting groups, meetings and weddings to the Vail Valley is something the Partnership places a large and year-round emphasis on. Last year, VVP destination sales and marketing efforts resulted in $69,000,000 of direct spending in the Eagle River Valley.
“We are pleased to add Heather Kerstiens to our group sales team and are confident that our focus on health & wellness and medical meetings will help provide an economic boost to Vail’s sales tax base. Medical meetings are an increasingly important component of our group sales effort and we are pleased to have a dedicated resource devoted to this effort moving forward,” said Chris Romer, executive director at Vail Valley Partnership.
For more information on group sales efforts at the Partnership, please visit VailValleyPartnership.com or call 970-476-1000.