Mrs. Fairchild

Executive Director of Saugatuck-Douglas Convention and Visitors Bureau

Ms. Fairchild has more than three decades of experience in both the international and U.S. Domestic travel industries. She began her career with Pan American World Airways where she spent 18 years in various Executive Level Marketing and Public Relations positions in New York City. She spearheaded a grass roots legislative program that is credited with having saved the airline from bankruptcy in 1974.

She also held Executive Level Marketing positions with Columbia Air, Pacific Southwest Airlines and Air West International before joining UNICEF as Director of Public Relations for the United States.

She is currently the Executive Director of the Saugatuck/Douglas Area Convention & Visitors Bureau where she is credited with raising tourism revenues 517% since the late 1980's. Under her leadership the Bureau was named one of the top 10 small visitors bureaus in the United States based on innovative marketing programs by the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1992.

Ms. Fairchild served as a Travel Commissioner for the State of Michigan from 1993 to 2001. She was instrumental in resurrecting the luxury cruise industry in the Great Lakes and spearheaded the return of cruise ships into Michigan waters after a 35-year absence. She founded "Cruise Michigan" a statewide association of Michigan ports to oversee the development of the cruise industry in Michigan and acts as its Executive Director.

Awards

Named one of the top 26 Most Influential Women in West Michigan in 1999; received the Hospitality Industry Service Award in 2000 and produced a TV commercial that won the "Silver Lion" in the Consumer Products Division at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986.

Board Service

Michigan Travel Commission 1993-2001; Grand Valley State University Advisory Board; Director Cruise Michigan; Cruising the Great Lakes, Inc. Board of Directors; Great Lakes Cruise Coalition; Lake Shore Center for the Arts Board of Trustees and Saugatuck S.O.S. – Save Our Shoreline.

Education

Bachelors in Foreign Languages and English, University of Miami; junior year abroad, University of Valencia, Spain/University of Southern California. Bilingual.