BTA: Pink Sale A Success; Reservations Up 45%
The Bermuda Tourism Authority’s [BTA] strategy to drive visitation to Bermuda in the first quarter [when arrivals and hotel occupancy numbers are traditionally lower] is paying off in confirmed hotel bookings, the BTA said today.
“The number of reservations made in the 2015 Pink Sale increased 45% when compared to the 2014 Pink Sale; while room nights booked were up 24% year-over-year. Those bookings are estimated to generate $4.2 million in visitor spending for the local economy, an increase of $813,000 over last year,” the BTA said.
“Our objective for this promotion and all that we do at the BTA is to generate demand for travel to Bermuda to impact spending on-island,” said Victoria Isley, the BTA’s Chief Sales & Marketing Officer. “Every dollar BTA invested in this promotion will result in $16 spent in Bermuda between now and the end of April. We believe that’s a pretty impressive ROI for Bermuda’s economy.”
Sample “Pink Sand” promo ad:
In partnership with the Bermuda Hotel Association [BHA], the Pink Sale promotion ran in North America and Europe for two weeks, January 14 to 28, 2015. The ad placements were in North America and Europe for just 14 days to create a sense of urgency to book and take advantage of 15 Bermuda hotels offering 50% off stays of 3 nights or more.
“On behalf of the 15 participating hotels, we congratulate the Tourism Authority on accomplishing these strong performance results,” said JP Martens, President of the BHA. “It’s very encouraging to see this kind of growth on the same marketing investment as last year – especially in the room nights booked category.
“At the BHA we feel very strongly that collaboration is the way to success and the 2015 Pink Sale is proof of that. The Bermuda Hotel Association is looking forward to a continued partnership and more collaboration with the BTA.”
The Pink Sale also ran last January, but the BTA said this time there were double the number of web impressions on the same media investment of $250,000.
The consumer engagement was much higher across the board:
- Total advertising impressions doubled
- Total website sessions at gotobermuda.com increased 125%
- Pink Sale webpage sessions increased 202%
- Booking Widget Clicks increased 124%
- Web traffic driven to hotel partner websites from Pink Sale webpage increased 90%
Ms Isley shared, “Seasonal island experiences were also promoted through the sale – from golf and spa to whale watching and Railway trails. We used the brutal winter in the northeast to our advantage with a customized digital feature that showed the live temperature readings in the consumer’s city alongside the temperature in Bermuda.
“For example, if the weather was 60 degrees or above in Bermuda and 32 degrees or below in New York or Boston the online ad showed the real time weather in both locations and a ‘Book Now’ call to action.
Sample of the “real time temperature” banner
“The metrics we’re seeing show us these geo-targeted, customized placements are part of a winning strategy. We teamed up with JetBlue to help increase the exposure, leveraging dedicated email marketing, homepage and getaways banner images and social media integration. JetBlue reported this year’s performance was up 100% over last year. ”
“The campaign proved so successful some hotels chose to extend their booking period to allow visitors to travel on the Pink Sale beyond April 2015. Those performance numbers were excluded from BTA’s reporting to allow for a more accurate comparison with 2014.”
“The number of reservations made in the 2015 Pink Sale increased 45%”
In 2014 there were 6 participating hotels.
In 2015, there were 15 participating hotels.
Thus it stands to reason 2015 numbers should be up as you are simply including the numbers from twice as many properties.
In 2014 you are counting numbers from 6 hotels. The room reservations from the other newly participating 9 hotels were not included in the 2014 numbers. In 2015, you are simply including numbers from 15 hotels compared to the 6 in 2014.
Simple math tell us if you essentially double the sample size, you should expect a significant increase in the numbers.
How about looking at the numbers from those 6 participating hotels in 2014 in comparison to how they performed in 2015. I seriously doubt, on average, the original 6 hotels experienced a 45% increase in bookings.
Also, in 2014 the ads ran for 11 days, compared to 14 days in 2015. Again, you would expect the numbers to increase as you are simply running the promotion for more time.
While overall numbers can still be down, the BTA can still proclaim this promotion to be a massive success.
Always be skeptical when organizations boasts massive improvements, like this, when the overall trend is down. If you look at the numbers, you will see that the comparison between this year and last year is comparing apples to oranges.
Is it just me, or did Fikel completely miss the point?
So BTA RAISED DEMAND for AIR ARRIVALS using the SAME INVESTMENT as the year before. Isn’t that the goal?!?!? Once you get that point everything else Fikel said falls apart.
When raising demand in this context it doesn’t matter whether there were more participating hotels or fewer the point is BTA got more people to say, “Yes, I want to go to Bermuda.” More participating hotels means nothing, what really matters is BTA got more eyeballs on the advertising without spending a single dollar more than the year before. Maybe we should applaud that instead of criticising it.
I can only assume what Fikel is talking about is hotel occupancy – what percentage of rooms sold. That’s a whole different subject matter. Let’s put that aside for a moment and have BTA focus on getting MORE PEOPLE TO BERMUDA BY AIR. Do that and almost everything else takes care of itself. Hell, those air arrivals can stay at a vacation rental for all I care, as long as they’re spending money in Bermuda.
Oh, and one other thing. If BTA bought 14 days of advertising for the same amount it cost to buy 11 days of advertising last time — hallelujah. That means they increased the tourism economy’s return on investment without putting more taxpayer money on the table.
Quite seriously Fickel, you have everything backward on this one. These new guys haven’t saved the day – not by a long shot – but let’s give credit when credit is due.