Dunkley: Tourism Results Simply Not Good Enough
[Written by Senator Michael Dunkley, Shadow Minister for Tourism]
No one should buy the excuse that bad weather is the reason first quarter air arrivals came in at catastrophically low levels; this time 10% below those for 2009, which was the start of one of the worst years in modern tourism.
The failure to attract sufficient numbers of visitors to Bermuda is unique to this Government – preceding bad weather, recession, even volcanoes.
Bad weather is a feature of every winter, both here and abroad.
We note the 10-page statistical report on first quarter results did not state the number of vacationers who cancelled their Bermuda trips because of bad weather even though this was the key to explaining why arrivals are down again. All the report could say on this point was that “Many visitors had to cancel their trips to the island resulting in a decline of 10% in air arrivals during this period.”
Forgive me for being skeptical about this pivotal sentence in the minister’s report. He has made a career of putting spin before truth and that, sadly, is what we and many others in community think when he speaks.
The Premier on Friday criticized the Opposition for being negative, but he has given us little to be positive about in tourism if you judge the success of the industry by the numbers of visitors we attract.
On a positive note, we could say that he has tried to compensate for the failure to attract air visitors by pumping up cruise ship visitor numbers. A cruise visitor, he said on Friday, is better than no air visitor. Okay, sure, we’ll give him that, but it’s no solution unless he has thrown in the towel on air visitors. And it appears he has, given that his Government has tolerated crushingly low air arrivals for seven years now.
And the figures are even worse than presented. We calculate that up to 50% of the air arrivals in the first quarter for 2010 were people coming to Bermuda either for business or to visit with friends and family.
These are not the people that Bermuda Tourism spends millions of dollars to attract. Tourism’s money is spent on attracting vacationers and that is where a hard look is needed: Are we getting the biggest bang for the buck? Are we focusing as tightly as we can on the most promising markets? And are we closing the deal as effectively as we can?
It is disappointing for Bermuda that we have not done better under this minister. Partisanship aside, we need the tourism part of our economy working better and it hasn’t happened. Although we have picked up signals that Bermuda’s marketing has got better than it was, its performance remains far below the commitment of our taxpayer dollars.
There are solutions. We have long called for the establishment of a tourism authority to bring professional leadership to the fore for Bermuda Tourism, as well as accountability. People have to be held responsible for the performance of tourism. We don’t have that now, otherwise the Premier would be out of a job.
We need to re-establish a sales force in the US northeast to drive business to our shores. While the second quarter this year shows relatively positive signs, the third and fourth quarters look weak. Now is the time to step on the gas to generate as much business as possible.
And we should never forget that we have much that is good to work with: Bermuda remains a unique physical and cultural destination that today still offers vacationers a great vacation. Sure we can improve on nightlife – and the government should be bending over backwards to work with the local businesses to make it happen – but visitor satisfaction survey results are very positive and stand as an indication that hoteliers and support services are doing a good job.
We just have to get the people here and it hasn’t happened under this minister, for years. Bermuda deserves better.
Bermuda is a beautiful Island, but it is over build and to expensive.
Aloha
Try controlling your serious crime and violence problem. That might result in an increase in tourist arrivals. I have been to Bermuda on 22 occasions. Never again!