St. Croix Sees Stellar Exposure as 9 Million People Were Reached on Consortium Platforms For 70th Crucian Christmas Festival

  • Elesha George
  • January 11, 2023
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A night at the 70th Crucian Christmas Festival Village during 2022-2023 events. By. GEORGE ARMSTRONG (KGP)/V.I. CONSORTIUM

St. Croix received stellar exposure for the nine days of the 70th Crucian Christmas Festival between Dec. 30 and Jan. 7, with videos and pictures of activities occurring on the island as part of the annual showcase reaching 9 million people on the V.I. Consortium’s Facebook platform, with over 5 million people actually watching videos.

From Village events to Jouvert and the parades, along with the Crucian-Rican tramp and videos of privately held gatherings, millions around the world tuned in to experience USVI culture and entertainment organically, providing the island with the best kind of exposure— organic — which translates to tourism growth in the form of both air and cruise travel, among other tourism-related value.

The Consortium’s outsize presence on Facebook with 292,000 followers played a major role in driving the far-reaching exposure, along with the content captured during the events. 

“I like to the say Consortium is carnival,” said Ernice Gilbert, V.I. Consortium founder and publisher. “I’m a huge fan and participant of carnival, and I want that to be reflected in V.I. Consortium’s coverage of our festivities.”

According to Facebook data, 1.1 million video views came from followers of V.I. Consortium, while 4.4 million were from people from all over the world who don't currently follow the page.

Viewers spanned the world: From the United States mainland, which accounted for a majority of the views, to France and Britain among other European countries, along with countries in Africa and other parts of the world. In the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Jamaica saw the top views.

Women viewed 60 percent of the videos while men viewed 40 percent. The highest viewership based on age was the group between 35-40 years old, followed by those 25-35 years old, 45-54, 55-64, 18-24, then 65 years old and higher, according to data provided by Facebook.

For the 70th Crucian Christmas Festival, VIC partnered with Media One — one of the best livestreaming companies in the Virgin Islands— for the livestream of Village performances, while V.I. Consortium took on Village interviews, parades and jourvert livestreaming with support from Soundstage V.I. 

The result was bar none coverage being lauded as the best coverage of USVI festivities yet.

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