Video: $29 Million Budget For Tourism
$20 million will be spent on marketing and promoting tourism, Business & Tourism Minister Wayne Furbert said at yesterday’s [Feb.24] post-budget press conference.
“The Ministry has $38 million to spend,” said Minister Furbert. “$29 million to spend on tourism, $5 million to spend on business development, $3 million on the Registrar of Companies and $1 million for e-commerce
“Out of the $29 million spent on tourism, $20 million roughly will be spent on the ‘actual getting tourists here.’ That is the sales and marketing and the promotion of tourism. Our idea of moving Bermuda forward is looking at a new approach…”
“We see some bright things ahead of us. We see the possibility of a hotel development coming forward, and I hope to make a major announcement, we are 99.9% there as the developer says. We hope to make that announcement in the month or so,” Minister Furbert said.
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Let’s say we buy bulk air tickets at around $300 each and just give 66,000 air tickets away? That would be real tourists coming here. Cruise ship passengers come anyway be ause the cruise ship company tells them to. I think a promotion like that would be better than wasting the money the way they appear to now.
I saw the same advert on CNN for Hilton Head Island about 6 times yesterday. I have not seen a Bermuda advert on tv for years! Where are they spending it?
there is a commercial currently on Bermuda cable tv channel 15 CityTV out of Toronto. the ad runs between 12am midnight and 1am local time in Toronto. that is ridiculous! what kind of waste of money is this?
agreed..have been saying this for a while……but instead they spend $700,000 on Cariftagames….which I,m glad to see money going to sports…but that works out to $1200 a person (500 visitors stated) and I doubt may of these kids will return or spend as much money back into the economy in the 3-4 days they are here..the money that government do spend can be used better to get more bang for their buck….
But please someone show me I’m wrong……
Would rather see free airfare with 3 night stay in any hotel/guest house or 7 $100,000 running weekends throughout the year…..or 7 $100,000 golf tournaments throughout the year as examples……both of these would bring in excess of 500 people and people that spend money on the island while they are here.
Actually if we used the full $29M we could get almost 100,000 tickets to give away! Imagine the publicity tat would give us! It would e on CNN for days!
Until groundwork and building commences on a new hotel development, I will not believe anything any Tourism Minister says. Promises, promises, promises!!!
Hey Flip Flop, how much of that $29M is for salarys for the the paper pushers in Global House & how much will be actually spent on real promotion like Disc Channel, Travel Channel, Nat Geo channel.
Global House – They do the work of 5 with a staff of 20. Disguised welfare really!!
While at Boston for a international connecting flight I saw the Bermuda ads on TV thrice between 4.30am and 5am….is that the right time to run the ad? and waste the budgeted dollars?
Oh another announcement soon to follow the 23 previous by Ewart (trumpets sounding here) that
a major hotel will break ground any day now! How can you continue this sham, have you no shame?
For the last decade we spent upwards of 35 million a year and nobody I’ve met seems to have seen more than one ad a year.Likewise with the number of fly in tourists. Ever done a survey to find out if all the visitors coming did so without seeing an ad but instead came on a recommendation! Give the 28 million to Ace to invest or stick it in a drawer so at least we’ll have something left this time next year.
Announcing is one thing, but how many new hotel developments were completed in the last 10 years?
When a potential investor can buy properties that are already “on sale” which they can renovate and refurbish and see a faster cashflow, why would they venture into building anew?
When a potential investor can see how many hotels have closed down why would they invest in building another one?
Should be enough there to pay the tourists to come here!
38 million to spend?? NO!!! You have a budget of 38 million, from which to spend responsibly to the best intrest f the island….
I hate this attitude of spend because its there!! (or because we can borrow it)
Friends and family. Screw the rest.
And $o to be spent on our biggest asset for marketing and promotion of our country..OUR PEOPLE..peace to all
Not another empty election promise about a hotel.
The last big promise was Ewart and Minors both promising that ground would be broken on the Park Hyatt in November 2011. “Financing is in place” they said. Of course, November came and went with nothing happening at all. Predictably.
Keep up the good work Mr. Furbert. I was in Boston the other day, downtown by the public library and i saw a pink double decker bus pull up to a stop light. It caught plenty of people’s attention. If 1 person decides to come to Bermuda because of that promo from that bus and that 1 person enjoys their Bermuda experience, and they return home and tell 1, who knows what will be the end result.
All it takes is 1
That is great! But, where will guest stay once we get them here? What will they then do whilst here? There is a lot of work to be done in Bermuda now that we put all our eggs into the International Business basket. Hotels needs to be built, existing need to be upgraded. All duties for a full year or so need to be suspended for this effort, including food for these hotels or for restaurants that cater to tourists. Find people to invest in Bermuda…… have you been to Bahamas and see the work they have done! We need stuff to do. Get creative with your efforts. You cannot sell the same old boring place.