Tourism Minister Promotes Bermuda In Germany
During a visit yesterday [Sept 10] in Hamburg, Germany, Minister of Business Development and Tourism Wayne Furbert and members of the Bermuda Tourism Board made the case for Bermuda as an attractive tourist destination.
A statement from the Tourism Ministry said: “In front of an audience of journalists and guests in the Anglo-German Club, Minister Furbert outlined the distinguishing highlights of Bermuda: the mild and pleasant year round climate; a density of golf courses like no other worldwide; unique underwater diving venues amongst historical shipwrecks – all in the charming ambience of the one-time British colony.
“We believe that many prospective vacationers from Germany do not yet realise the potential in Bermuda” said Minister Furbert. “That’s why we would like to attract more attention to Bermuda, with our new marketing campaign ‘Bermuda, so much more’ and under the motto ‘serendipity’ – as in ‘discovery’ or ‘happy coincidence’ – and generate enthusiasm amongst visitors from Germany.”
The Minister said that Bermuda currently welcomes approximately one thousand guests annually from Germany. “We would like to significantly increase this figure in the future,” he said.
Define “one thousand guests” please.
Can’t wait to see the comments to this story. lol!
In the one time British Isle – aren’t we still British??? I don’t know about you Mr. Furbert, you need to check your ole UBP files – we had a connection with Germany before and that fell as hard as your heels when you walked across the floor.
Ah where to begin.
The mild and pleasant year round climate – Chilly winters, not at all beach weather and blazing hot and humid summer where tourists are usually waiting hours for transportation that never comes.
A density of golf courses like no other worldwide – True but many have not been well maintained and some are simply not affordable to play on.
Unique underwater diving venues amongst historical shipwrecks – No doubt but good luck finding affordable gear to rent – Government shut down the one guy who sells stuff at a reasonable price
All in the charming ambience of the one-time British colony – minus the teeth sucking attitudes at the airport and in the stores and that good ol’ 15% grats at the restaurants! Otherwise Wayne, you are spot on! Hope those $2500 first class seats were comfy!
This was good!! You are right about that one. 15% Grats whether you get good service or not.
You think first class to Germany is $2,500?? Ha ha ha….
Is that through New York or Gatwick… We need a direct flight to really attract visitors from Europe.. Overnighting doesn’t cut it…
Oh really !
You couldn’t make this sheet up could you.
Oh pleeze, I can’t take it any more!! While Messrs. Bean and Weeks are busily scheming away behind closed doors for pristine Warwick parkland to be turned into a race track, Mr. Furbert is in Germany trying to sell Bermuda as an ATTRACTIVE destination with “so much more……………..” Really?
Geesch!!! You couldn’t make this stuff up!!!
OK PLP I am done with the jokes and the last 14 years have been an absolute blast but when are we gonna get to the real serious part and when are you gonna accept you had your chances, 14 years of chances – that you just blew away. Epic failure with only continued failure to look forward to. Time for a change.
Minister Furbert and “members of the Tourism Board”….just how many members of the Tourism Board did we pay to go to Hamburg and who were they?
First you need a direct flight….not many wish to fly to UK or New York and deal with layovers and immigration(NY)….they have money but also loads of easier options.
It seems that every two or three days,some bit of Government stupidity comes to the surface that makes you shudder. The gag order they all have (right down to Brother Chris) can’t even stop the stupidity from coming out.
Mr. Furbert, PLEASE call The Honorable CV “Jim” Woolridge, the last tourism minister we ever had, to find out how it’s done .
I hope they are promoting Bermuda to the German airlines to try to get some direct flights from continental Europe direct to Bermuda. We have to create some competition to British Airlines!!
There is no reason, why the Bermuda government could help subsidise some type of direct flights from Germany.
Yes there is; the Country has no money, haven’t you noticed?
Government subsidizes every flight coming into Bermuda that is less than (I think) 50% full, we pay enough to get planes here now… We should be filling what we have now…its all about price… A Canadian can spend 4 nights all inclusive down south for less than the airfare to Bermuda… Why should they?
Man this is my first trip to London and I am absolutely loving it. There are WORKING CAMERAS on every corner. Policing is very much professional and seamingly hands on. A few Casinos in downtown London that are small but kinda nice. Sunshine this WHOLE WEEK, beautiful women walking the streets and NO DAMN GERMANS NOWHERE. SO Why the hell cant BDA follow the mother land and get English cops, cameras, casinos and a direct flight FROM GERMANY……… HUH, HUH… Oh I forgot, PLP is —–
We’re going to need a lot more poolside towels and sunloungers.
Brilliant.
Places like Cambridge & Horizons used to have a pretty good stream of German clientele. Don’t know what the numbers are like now. The Germans don’t mind paying big bucks. They do mind paying big bucks for lousy service & the word gets out fast.
Overall is this junket worth the trip? Doubt it. Nice end of summer vacation for Minister Flip Flop & entourage on the taxpayer dime.
What happened to fishing where the fish are? Are the east coast citys too boring?
We’ve pissed off all of them already, need new meat
Exactly! What happened to fishing where the fish are?! They simply will not listen.
I LOVE IT!!! What happened to fishing where the fish are???
It doesn’t get any clearer and I love the visual ………
Hellooooo PLP…….anybody home???
Bermuda ist so viel mehr
LMAO
germany is a country well off
ill leave de blanks 2 be filled____________
You posters are so negative it is amazing.
Perhaps you can let us know what the rate of return is for this little fling, the ROI return on investment?
Nah…didn’t think you could. Any ill thought through idea is good enough. No accountability necessary.
Bernews would do well to look at what happened to a couple of the Miniter’s other initiatives and what they cost the tax payer. In particular, the entertainment extravaganza that was funded by Goverment for Fairmont – my sources inside tourism tell me that it cost several hundred thousand dollars to produce and closed after just a few weeks having had audiences of as few as zero on some evenings and overall revenues of barely $5,000.00. Apparently the plan to market it as an evening shore excursion to cruise passengers (as the Follies were very successfully back in the day) failed completely, mainly as the cruise lines chose not to market it claiming that their shore excursions were already in place for the season (total BS by the way, they wanted to keep the money on board).
I presume the Minster learned his lesson and will be looking for better value for our money in what he offers our German friends.
Nothin’ from Nothin’ leaves Nothin’….wat u expectin’?
Being married to a german and have lived and worked in Germany, the average German can’t afford a Bermuda vacation. Even though they are the largest economy in europe, the average wage is 1800 euro a month. Just the flight to Bermuda is a months wage. They will not come here due to package deals they can get to Canary Islands, Azores, Dominican Republic, turkey, Maiorca, which they would pay 8 to 900 euro for a month all incluesive of flight, food and accomodation, not to mentioning taking their cars and driving to neighboring countries. Upper class Europeans from Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland and Germany are used to high standards of service and food quality. Bermuda does not come close, and please don’t take this as an offense, we have very poor standards of service and food. There are no five star hotel, no five star restaurants and definately no michilan star restaurants in Bermuda. Bermuda needs to focus on the east coast midclass to upper middleclass traveller. We also need the supervisers to do there jobs and get these well paid government workers put in a full days work and clean up the roads and sidewalk, cut the overgrowth and plant flowers and shrubs on roadsides to make bermuda beautiful the way it was when the portuguese had it done. Provide service with a smile and have a proper hotel and restaurant training programs, not a four week course and government state that they have been trained and make people hire them. No these bandades will only cause the sore to get worse. Wake up Mr Furbert, you see the service you are getting in Germany, create that in Bermuda by making people work and be proud of their profession, hold people accountable in the professions, then see how things start to improve. May I also suggest to cut your advertising budget and spent some of it to subsidize local and foriegn entertainment at hotels, beaches and various other locations like airport and ferry terminal. Word of mouth is the best advertising you can have, not spending money on trips and lousy adds.
Totally agree.
We do not stand a chance to attract the wealthy European class until quality and service return to Bermuda like it was in the 50′s,60′s,70′s,80′s.
They have so many global 5 star and above options available,which Bermuda currently does not come close.
They need need to fix Bermuda first ,before they go on these junkets in hopes that they will come to Bermuda and be disappointed on arrival.
This was said very well, and covered many salient points. I agree completely, and SOMEBODY needs to PAY ATTENTION.
Fish where the fish are! That is such a simple marketing strategy even the PLP should be able to understand it. But because it didn’t come from them they will ignore it…. they don’t take advice well.
@Observer—I agree mostly!never been to Germany but years ago dated them whilst they where on the island working in the hotels..Remember Oktoberfest? yeah! They prefer to drink,pool, basic club and party, but they certainly did complain when we weren’t up to par,I recall many conversations back then defending Bermuda to them when they complained about our attitudes…waste of time for government to invest in that again!! Infrastructure could sure use an injection of idle cash.
Not sure why they went to Hamburg and not Berlin or Frankfurt…..simple look up from Hamburg shows Easy Jet as the cheapest and maybe only direct flight to Gatewick and even then they must wait 12 hours to conect to Bermuda either coming or going….so guessing for that reason alone many will go elsewhere..
and would you be looking for a common sense reason why thy went to Hamburg and not Berlin or Frankfurt? we need to give up the common sense approach….someone was probably hungry and thought of Hamburg….easy as that with this lot…..
He should have been in over there promoting our Offshore business instead of the Tourism business as onlyyyyyy 4% of our GDp comes from Tourism!!!
Sun, sea, sand – tick, tick, tick. Topless beaches? I hope the good minister mentioned that women have to keep their tops on on Bermuda beaches and around pools – unlike say in Germany, France, Italy, need I go on. On the other hand, Government could make a lot of money fining these people for running around without tops.
We are not a colony anymore…. we are a dependant territory…
Kudos to Minister Furbert….one of my best friends lives just outside of Berlin, and tells me that his two neighbours visit Bermuda annually to stay at Newstead and play golf. Apparently they’ve convinced a few other people from the city to visit as well, and have nothing but good things to say about us.
Germany is Europe’s strongest economy right now, so it makes perfect sense to pitch our image there.
i dont care what country we try to get ,,, who would want to come here?
to do what? to go were?
oh ya they can go jump of a cliff,,,
Hahahahahaha!!!11fuuunnny!!!!!
Hope Wayne enjoyed his Euro trip.
Word of advice to the next Tourism Minister. If you have brains and want to increase tourist arrivals, here’s what your itinerary should look like; Visit New York. Visit Boston. Repeat.
Today’s Royal Gazette Page 40:
Tourists get the message: Berliners don’t love them
Tourism to Berlin is booming as never berore and filling the DEBT-RIDDEN city’s coffers with much needed cash, but NOT ALL Berliners are cheering the influx of visitors.
Berlin, now Europe’s third most visited city after the more established magnets London and Parish, can ill afford to scare away the tourists.
Tourism generated gross revenues of Euro10.3 billion last year, equal to nearly ten percent of the city budget…. Tha tis more than either real estate or consumer goods production, two other expanding branches of Berlin’s otherwise ploddin economy, it showed.
Noisy Tourists, rising rents, insults for looking like tourists or disparaging looks – a tourist friendly awareness drive has been launched.
Mr. Furbert, your take on this please -
Hahahahahahaha u guys r killin me today fuunnny!but true..so simple..