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.

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.