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ATTA New Member Profile - W² ~ Widness & Wiggins PR

A Professional Public Relations, Marketing and Communications Agency Serving the Adventure Travel Industry

Overview:  

Established in April 2007, Widness & Wiggins PR offers an affordable yet personalized media contact and communications strategy expressly designed for adventure travel industry clients. Together, combining their lifelong careers in PR, marketing, and communications in the active travel industry, Sara Widness and Dave Wiggins have built important relationships within the travel media community and have delivered real results to a wide range of companies and clients. They believe strongly that your Public Relations plan should be tailored to your specific situation.  Cookie-cutter solutions in PR and marketing fail to achieve significant results.  

Widness & Wiggins PR is a member of the Adventure Travel Trade Association  

Services:

• Comprehensive Public Relations Plans – from research and writing to implementation
• Press Release Writing
• Press Release Distribution – to an in-house list of over 4,000 current and updated media contacts
• Press Trip Promotion, Qualification and Orchestration
• Client Press Visit Coordination – face-to-face meetings with editors and media “big hitters”
• Electronic and Print Press Kits
• Lead Generation and Response – facilitation of article and information requests
• Story Idea Creation, Pitching and Follow-up – monitoring of lead resources and editorial calendars
• Copy Writing – catalogs, client communications, websites, newsletters, etc.
• Press and Media Event Coordination
• Tourism Board Partnerships
• Ongoing Contact and Results Tracking and Reporting
• Brainstorming, Relationship Building and Customized Media Contact Solutions  

About Sara Widness  

Sara Widness has a proven record of extraordinary success in marketing communications and public relations. She began her career as an editor for several Vermont newspapers. She was also a reporter on the metro desk of United Press International in New York City.  

Widness has more than three decades of high-level public relations experience representing prestigious travel industry clients in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.  

In October 2002 she relocated her office from Soho in Manhattan to Barnard, Vermont, where she now owns and operates a bed and breakfast called The Fan House. Active in local concerns, she serves on the board of Pentangle Council on the Arts, and she assists with public relations outreach for the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce and for a newly formed consortium of Woodstock region innkeepers called Benchmark Inns of Woodstock. Widness holds an undergraduate degree in English literature with a minor in journalism from Stanford University.  

Some of her many past clients include: Orient Express Trains & Cruises, Orient-Express Hotels, City of Rio de Janeiro, Rockresorts, Palazzo Arzaga (Italy), Fairmont Hotels (San Francisco), Carlyle Hotel, “21”, St. Regis New York, Killington Ski Resort and the Waterville Valley Ski Resort.  

About Dave Wiggins  

Dave brings 30 years of adventure travel industry experience to Widness & Wiggins PR. Formerly he held the position of Marketing Director for Austin-Lehman Adventures. Prior to that, Dave served as Vice President of Supplier Relations and Marketing Communications for Away.com and GORPtravel. For 22 years he was the owner and President of American Wilderness Experience (AWE!). Under his direction, AWE! pioneered the wholesale and retail brokering of adventure travel becoming one of the industry's most recognized brand names in the promotion and sale of active and exotic vacations.   

Wiggins is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, with a Bachelors Degree in Human Development. Dave has made guest appearances on both television and radio and is an Associate Member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) and a Lifetime Member of the Dude Ranchers’ Association (DRA).  

Current Widness & Wiggins Clients

• Austin-Lehman Adventures – a luxury multisport tour operator
• Wimco – a villa management company
• Asia Transpacific Journeys – an operator who runs high-end tours to greater Asia
• Quintess – a luxury destination club
• ClearLake Furniture – a ‘green” furniture company in Vermont
• Vermont Wood Manufacturer’s Assn – promoting annual Fine Furniture & Woodworking Festival
• Lucy Mackenzie Humane Society – oldest animal shelter in Vermont and one of oldest in the US
• Benchmark Inns of Woodstock, Vermont – a consortium of inns and B&Bs

Contact Information

Sara Widness
The Fan House
PO Box 294
Barnard, Vermont 05031
Phone: 802-234-6704
Email: