Tourism minister reveals plans for the future

During a visit to Jamaica in January, the Tourism and Business Development Minister saw a plane on the runway that she didn’t recognise.

After asking a few questions, she was told it was a charter flight from Germany that flies to various Caribbean islands.

Speaking to the Bermuda Sun ahead of today’s tourism budget debate, Mrs. Minors said: “I would love it if the charter airline TUI coming out of Germany came to Bermuda.

“I attended the Caribbean Tourism Organisation meeting in January in Jamaica and as I sat there waiting to get off, the plane, I saw another plane — it was TUI.

“I was told it was a German charter flight and thought ‘what can we do to get that airline to Bermuda?’”

In an interview yesterday, Mrs. Minors also disclosed that Park Hyatt has plans to break ground on its new hotel development in November. Plans for the new resort are seen by many as a much-needed boost for St. George’s.

Asked how the Ministry plans to lure tourists to Bermuda during tough economic times, Mrs. Minors said: “Right now, our main strategy is to push quite aggressively our brand awareness and promotions.

“We have on Wednesday [today], a significant amount [to discuss] about what’s happening in the Department of Tourism.”

She said the ministry would launch a Feel the Love rewards programme for visitors and Bermudians.

“That’s a means of encouraging Bermudians to take ownership of our tourism product,” she added.

“The strategy as far as a more broader strategy will be revealed with our National Tourism Plan in the summer. The Bermuda Tourism Board is challenged with coming up with the document.”

Tucker’s Point

On Monday night, MPs passed the Special Development Order (SDO) for Tucker’s Point Club to expand.

On the controversial SDO, Mrs. Minors said: “It’s great news that we have now the opportunity to have a five-star brand associated to a five-star property.

“It’s the first to be built in the past 35 years.

“Just the brand of Rosewood would draw quite a bit of attention to Bermuda as a premier jurisdiction.”

She said Bermuda the related publicity on the international arena “will do great things” for all guest properties here, no matter what their status.

Asked if expanding Tucker’s Point was a make or break for tourism, the Minister said “no”. But she added its would be a make or break for the owners of Tucker’s Point.

This year, the Tourism Ministry will not be using Global Hue to market the island.

Instead, Mrs. Minors said her Ministry will use media buyers and in doing so has saved $1.6 million that would have been paid to an agency.

She said: “It affords us the ability to directly purchase the spots on radio and TV.

“In doing so, that moves out the commission part which is what we would be subjected to had we had an agency.”

She said her ministry would use the media buyer until the end of the year.

“If it’s effective and efficient, there could be consideration of continuing on the way forward but we’re not saying we won’t use an agency.”

With regard to gateway cities, Mr. Minors said her team would be focusing on Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, New York and Canada, the latter of which is a key city thanks to WestJet.

She said Canadian tourists were coming to Bermuda more as they hadn’t experienced the economic downfall.

Mrs. Minors also announced Government would be partnering with the Chewstick Foundation to promote BeachFest.

“We’re looking to join up to assist with promoting their event and Bermuda.

‘That’s an opportunity that’s beneficial to encouraging them. We’re hopeful that maybe the airlines will be encouraged to join as well.”

Chewstick performed in various locations in New York City last year and will tour in Toronto in the spring.

Asked if there would be any new tourism themes, Mrs. Minors said the department would be sticking with the Feel the Love theme for this year, but it could be changed once the tourism plan is released.

 As far as challenges in her role, Mrs. Minors said: “My biggest challenge will be making sure that all the key players are happy at the end of the year.

“We want to make sure the hoteliers are happy. We want the airlines to be happy that they filled seats to capacity.

“I want our retailers to be happy that our stores are full of visitors. And we want our taxi drivers to be happy that they’re not waiting at night to get visitors in their cars.”

She continued: “All in all, I want it to be economically successful for all these service providers for our tourism product.

“That will be an indication that we have done our job in bringing about a success of our tourism product.”

For Mrs. Minors’ views on her role as Business Development Minister, see Friday’s Bermuda Sun.

Her first stop was to Rosedon last Thursday where the hotel’s general manager, Muriel Richardson, gave her a tour.

She said the visits would be regular if not weekly. We visited Rosedon and had a wonderful tour of the hotel. We didn’t think it had that many rooms.

“We’re doing all the small hotels and we’re going around paying visits to talk to the hoteliers about their properties.”

She continued: “Our Bermudians need to know about these properties.

“The week after next, we will be paying a visit to The Reefs and we will continue to make our little visits around the Island and get a feel for our properties.