BTA Team Go Cliff Jumping At Admiralty House
Yesterday [Mar 11] a team from the Bermuda Tourism Authority [BTA] went cliff jumping at Admirality House to mark Outside magazine naming Bermuda as ‘Best Island’ in its annual Best of Travel awards.
In describing the island, Outside magazine said, “A subtropical archipelago of 181 volcanic islands, Bermuda won the bid to host the 2017 America’s Cup, thanks to near perfect North Atlantic sailing conditions.
“Beyond wind, the British Overseas Territory, just a two-hour flight from New York City, has 75 miles of pink-sand beaches interspersed with jagged limestone cliffs, many of which are perfect for deep-water soloing and hucking into the Atlantic from the top.
Speaking about being named as ‘Best Island’, BTA CEO Bill Hanbury said, “The Bermuda Tourism Authority is thrilled for Bermuda to be recognized by a travel brand like Outside.
“From world-class sailing conditions to unparalleled reef and wreck diving to mountain biking our historic Railway Trail, Bermuda is perfectly suited for all types of adventure-seekers.
“Bermudians have known the thrill of their island for generations – now we’re excited for a new generation of travelers to jump into the island’s culture and experiences,” added Mr Hanbury.
Founded in 1977, Outside magazine says their mission is to “inspire participation in the world outside through award-winning coverage of the sports, people, places, adventures, discoveries, environmental issues, health and fitness, gear and apparel, style and culture that define the active lifestyle.”
According to their publishing statement [PDF], Outside magazine has a circulation of close to 700,000, with the bulk of their readers located in the United States.
- Photos courtesy of Channel 82
Mockingjay….where are you?
Ok so the Daily Totals Visitor loads are down and you people are happy. Keep playing the voters for fools can’t wait to see the facts when …..released
Well done BTA…looks like a perfect ratio of our island too. That one’s for you Mockingjay!
So you get a couple of guys to jump off a cliff with you and you and have a Hallelujah time, that has nothing to do with acceptance and equality, and when they knock off they will go back to their little community dwellings and he will go rub his shoulders with his Elite Club.
Big deal.
Um jus saying you’re the one who says the BTA know nothing about Bermuda…seems to me it’s made up of Bermudians. Now get back to ya job…ya been on lunch too long um seen you couple times today!
I didn’t say no such thing, I said why have a Tourism Minister who makes $150,000 or so, give $23 Million to the BTA with no accountability and paying Hanbury $1000,00 a day. And I’m on vacation, see you tomorrow too.
So youre proposing Communism?
And what do you go back to Captain Mocking.
Sad commentary mate. Get a life!
Check Bill Hanbury!!!!!
Got to give credit where credit is due.
This is an excellent response from the BTA – and with CEO Hanbury leading from the front!!
I’m proud that this is the first time EVER that Bermuda has had an award like this.
I’ve never heard of that magazine before, is it sold in Bermuda? I just looked it up on the net. One monthly issue said, “Travel far, save big”, One of the older issues… I have to wonder, are we trying to sell a product or the country? literally… Cause that magazine seems to be for the rich adventurer. I could be wrong..
Well that’s what the guy from Tempo said he was told by the BTA.
Bill Hanbury is showing that he is young at heart! Great stuff. I really like the initiative to promote bermuda to the active outdoor types. Bermuda is a wonderful place with easily accessible outdoor activities.
Attention of Bill Hanbury and others:” Bermuda & other places.”
Sent from the desk of Mr. Raymond J. C. Ray
If you have a spare moment, please view my site.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNGpywSs5rI-pvhYB7__Jpg/videos
Raymond, I checked out a few of your vids on youtube. Is there any place on the Island I can go to listen to live jazz like you’ve audited? Very nice..
I thank you for visiting my site; I further appreciate your compliments but unfortunately many place around the Island no-longer provide live music while lounging upon one of our countless beaches or other breathtaking “spots”
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!! Don’t you lot know it is not May 24th yet?????
You would surprised how many people from away wouldn’t mind the water temp being in the 60s. It’s all part of the thrill for outdoor adventure seekers.
Not many cause if there was they’d be here. Lol
Horse shoe bay head count today, 4 lol
You BTA shills/idiots wouldn’t know a propagandist staged photo op it it kicked you in the “knots” – do you think it is merely coincidental that the black/white ratio is represented this way? Is it not concerning that most every day now this “authority” using its Propaganda arm to continue to advocate for its own existence? The proof will be in the tasting of the pudding- and as much as I’d like that pudding to taste like increased tourist arrivals we will not have that flavor. Instead as dictated by the economic conditions where most of our arrivals originate we will have a pie that tastes more like “hot air” – BTA flavored.
Please pay particular attention to fact number six and seven below and then ask yourself how the heck could they (Americans – where most our tourism originates) afford to come here. Stew on it for a minute.
Here are some numbers the BTA will not like for you to see…that “recovery” puppet Bob likes to speak of. Don’t shoot the messenger please. The truth can hurt the eyes of those who has never seen…
#1 Since February 2008, the size of the U.S. population has grown by 16.8 million people, but the number of full-time jobs has actually decreased by 140,000.
#2 The percentage of working age Americans that have a job right now is still about the same as it was during the depths of the last recession.
#3 The primary reason for the decline in the official “unemployment rate” is the fact that the government now considers millions upon millions of long-term unemployed workers to “no longer be in the labor force”. Just check out the following numbers…
The number of Americans participating in the labor force has been on a decline for the past few years. Nearly 33 percent of the Americans above age 16 are not part of the workforce, the highest number since 1978. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report issued recently has found 92,898,000 Americans above age 16 not a part of the labor force of the country as on February 2015.
When President Obama took over the office in January 2009, nearly 80,529,000 Americans were not a part of the labor force. The number has increased by nearly 12 million over the last few years.
#4 Over the past couple of years, the labor force participation rate in this country has been hovering near mutli-decade lows…
The labor force participation rate hovered between 62.9 percent and 62.7 percent in the eleven months from April 2014 through February, and has been 62.9 percent or lower in 13 of the 17 months since October 2013.
Prior to that, the last time the rate was below 63 percent was 37 years ago, in March 1978 when it was 62.8 percent, the same rate it was in February 2015.
#5 When you add the number of “officially unemployed” Americans (8.7 million) to the number of Americans “not in the labor force” (92.9 million), you get a grand total of 101.6 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now. Does that sound like “full employment” to you?
#6 The quality of our jobs continues to decline. Right now, only 44 percent of U.S. adults are employed for 30 or more hours each week.
#7 Millions upon millions of Americans have been forced to take part-time jobs because that is all they can find, and wages for American workers are at depressingly low levels. The following numbers come directly from the Social Security Administration…
-39 percent of American workers make less than $20,000 a year.
-52 percent of American workers make less than $30,000 a year.
-63 percent of American workers make less than $40,000 a year.
-72 percent of American workers make less than $50,000 a year.
#8 The average duration of unemployment for an unemployed worker is still about twice as long as it was just prior to the last recession.
#9 Most Americans feel as though the Obama administration has done little to nothing to help the middle class. Just consider the following poll numbers…
According to a new poll by the Pew Research Center, Americans see government policies under the Obama administration as having mostly benefited wealthy people, large corporations and financial institutions.
Seventy-two percent of respondents said government policies have done little or nothing to help the middle class, and 65 percent said they have done nothing to help the poor. Sixty-eight percent said the policies have done nothing to help small businesses.
Meanwhile, 45 percent said the policies have done a “great deal” to help large banks and financial institutions, 38 percent say they have helped large corporations, and 36 percent say they have helped the wealthy.
#10 If the unemployment rate was calculated honestly, we would all be talking about the horrific “unemployment crisis” that we were currently enduring. According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, the real unemployment rate in the United States right now is above 23%.
lol, you ok mate?
Anyway done the cliff at “House” many times.
Always fun
Tell us how you really feel. Imagine if all the energy you used to come up with this response was used for something contructive.
That was five minutes of my time “dude.” You should see me when I really have the bit in my mouth.
Cheers,
Don’t leave the light on…might hurt your eyes.
keep on hatin Obama even though his numbers are up. Too think if Romney would have gotten in smfh!
Thank you Ivory Tower, the truth always stings the uneducated!!! The vast majority of Bermudians live in some LA LA Land and have no clue why they really support that president other than simply the pigmentation of his skin!!! The US is still hurting big time but just as the plp easily did to their own sheeple with their fake numbers and photo opps, Odrama is doing the exact same thing to them as well!!! The funny thing is, just like the electorate finally woke up here and ousted the plp, the U.S. electorate has done the same thing there by now having control of the House and Senate and soon to come the White House!!!
Hey Dreamer, people didn’t wake up here they got Bamboozled and Hoodwinked like the President of the Taxi Drivers and Obama has used up all his Terms, that speaks volumes.
All of this gloom & doom about the US economy. I don’t understand it.
I am busy planning a budget US roadtrip staying at what most would consider ‘blue collar’ type destinations. 3 & 4 months out from dates needed & accomodations & full or near full.
What is going on? Where are all of these people with no jobs & no money to spend on vacations?
“Show me your laws and I will show you your God” a great man once said.
Suffice to say tell me where you are living and then I can tell you where these “people” are…
That ‘great man’ was obviously talking total BS. Telling anyone they will ‘show you God’ is a complete copout – because it is meaningless. There is no evidence for God and he knows it. It is complete mind control nothing more. Only weak minded and brainwashed people would fall for it.
Its like saying ‘give me your hard earned money and I’ll give you this special invisible money back’.
Religion is the biggest con there ever was. Shame more people haven’t figured that out yet.
@ Ed Case: From the looks of it, it seems you’re in a boat by yourself.. You should keep your brainwashed beliefs to yourself…
Triangle, I agree with you 99% of the time but this time I can’t!!! The policies of this disaster of a president if you actually read the true facts such as Ivory Tower presented you will think otherwise?? My daughter just this past Monday was layed off along with her entire Dept, because the entire Manhatten division has been outsourced to a Asian business because of ODRAMA CARE that is now starting to take effect!! The US is in trouble big trouble for years and now it is only going to get worst!!! Democrats are NOT our friend because they are the ones who always threaten BDA with their tax and spend policies!!! The US always does better under a Republican president, just do a little research and you will find that fact to be true. The only time the US economy did well in the last 55 yrs under a democrat, was when Kennedy and Clinton were presidents!! Kennedy policies leaned to the Right as did Clinton after his 2nd year in office when he realized his lefty thinking cost him the US house of Representives became Republican, at least he had the smarts to start moviving to to center and actually lowered taxes!!!
Also Triangle, if you actually think about what you said?? ” I am busy planning a BUDGET friendly road trip and the accommodations are nearly full ” that if you think about it, should confirm what I and Ivory Tower said??? Average Joe Blow American does not have the money to spend on $500 a night BDA hotels???
Someone doesn’t realize that this is BERNEWS, meaning Bermuda. Take your OBAMA bashing views and stuff elsewhere.
Truth stinging you Tough Love???
There are Republican Tea Party followers in Bermuda too.
agreed we have enough of our own political condundrums than to add US Politics. there are plenty sites in the US that would be happy to entertain bashing of the own US President starting with Faux News.
Our target market falls outside these statistics….and still leaves millions and millions of potential customers to attract.
Completely agree Ivory. The average American is completely insolvent and it won’t get better any time soon. At least we in Bda are trying to do something about our debt both individual and joint. USA is doing neither. Great article mate.
Maybe you should move back to Bermuda with all those stats.
What a load of s*&^.
You spent all that time putting that up here?
Rum all around.
THANK YOU BTA and Bill Hanbury.
Wouldn’t Bermuda be a better place if everyone walked the talk??
Well done on all of you.
Thanks for putting up with the background noise and keeping your eyes on the prize–which will benefit all of Bermuda’s people.
Have a Blessed day!
I love the swim attire Bermudian way electronics on the rock and everything goes. Who broke ice first?????
Not to be Debbie Downer but these articles by other media really need to be written with a bit more accuracy.
Describing us as a subtropical archipelago of 181 volcanic islands is going to conjure up quite a different picture in one’s mind than what they will actually see in real life.
And I don’t believe that if you strung all the beaches together , public and private , they’d even amount to 21 miles much less 75 .
And the 9 Beaches is in worse condition than Botanical Gardens.
Is that false advertisement.
no one ever said the BTA was perfect – and course they aren’t but they are doing one hell of a good job – great result
@ivory tower. Interesting stats. First I agree that this photo-op was definitely cringe worthy. Can you imagine the fall out if the Tourism Director and some staff did this same thing in the past administration? To simplify our tourism product to cliff diving is not the answer. Where is the BTA in North Hamilton? Getting together with the transportation industry? Dealing with the issue of Bermudians not being seen in the restaurant industry? I get no sense there is some real brainstorming happening for the public’s knowledge. We all need to be on board with this not just behind some closed (expensive) offices. If cliff diving photo ops is the extent of their brainstorming, Lord help us.
Also regarding the stats per ivory tower. I have always felt, as do many others that Bermuda is fully approaching the awful realization of pricing itself COMPLETELY out of the tourism market. I think we are 99% there to be frank. We are left with soliciting only the ’1%’ so to speak which are not great odds at all eg. cruise ships. Yes I am being simplistic but much reliance is on this particular industry now who are known to not spend much. Yet we try to spin around the same formula of trying to attract the wealthy only. That could mean trying to solicit the same persons coming here year after year which could get boring even if they are rich. The fact that Americans still do not know our existence despite being 90 minutes away from one of the most popular airports on earth admitted by the BTA (Glenn Jones said this on Sherri J’s show)is still astonishing.
We need to change our target market away from the wealthy and be ingenious in creating a price formula for the current middle class. How do we price ourselves back into the market? Very tough. I am not an economist but some research has to be done. Is the BTA liaising with the Economic section of the Ministry of Finance to talk strategy or are we just blindly creating expensive ads? You see I don’t think the answer is how slick or better the ads are in an ad campaign. I don’t need an expensive 30 second ad to know if I wish to visit Beijing or Melbourne. Most likely I will forget about it and I will do my own research on countries I wish to visit. Our advertising has to be a lot smarter than…cliff diving. The bottom line which we don’t seem to want to face is that we do not nor have we developed a proper hedge against Bermuda’s sole reliance on an elitist market during a recession. I wish it could be something as simple as everyone bringing down the costs together simultaneously by 20%. Banks, Retail, Hotels, all Salaries, Fuel, etc etc. for a year say and see how that pans out in being more competitive to our tourism market. Is it possible? To give ourselves a price break? Because our competitors down south are enjoying higher numbers without a dominance and reliance of an elite market to support them unlike us. I was there recently and their comprehensive all in one vacation packages are mind blowing. Bermuda simply cannot compete with that. No question, we need more out of the box thinking to be done like yesterday.
“To simplify our tourism product to cliff diving is not the answer.” – they are simply responding to an article that was featured in the magazine.
This is not the end all for BTA’s marketing. It is not their only focus, but they are currently embracing and responding to an article bringing attention to Bermuda – doing what most Bermudians have done as their island pastime – cliff jumping!
Why don’t you set up a meeting with the BTA to discuss your ideas? In the mean time – let them have a good time and represent the island in what fun activities we love to do!
People know where Beijing and Melbourne are. People do not know where Bermuda is!
How do we price ourselves back into the market? How naive this comment is. Firstly you would need to stop buying power from BELCO at some of the highest rates in the world, secondly you would have to not employing Bermudians at some of the highest costs in the world and of course you would have to not supply food bought by local distributors, again at some of the highest costs in the world. Operating expenses on this Island are obscene, throw in Unions and a seasonal subtropical climate. We would have to compete with the likes of Mexico and Costa Rica. Sure we can probably get there is we allow our national debt to spiral out of control so that the major resort developers can pay third world wages.
You need quality not quantity, that is the only way. Bermuda is just too plain expensive and there ain’t no changing that anytime soon.
@Ladybug: Not everybody cliff dives. Also it’s considered to be a dangerous past time. A local man lost his life there several years ago and he had been doing it for a quite a while like many locals. In other words this was not new to him. So imagine the risk in promoting this with tourists not knowing what they are doing and doing this for the first time i.e. falling at an angle towards a belly buster. Once you fall at that angle there’s not much more you can do before you hit the water. That is painful if you have not experienced that yourself. And to promote this without a caveat? Seriously? You think these cliff diving pics were for our Bermudian eyes only? Also I don’t need to go to the BTA. Trust me they are reading the blogs to this article hence my comments.
@Bermyman: I am not going to assume that people know where all the far away places are around the globe. But we have the facts to KNOW that many people do not know where Bermuda is 90 minutes away from East Coasters alone. Needs another rethink to bring up the awareness that’s all. Also that was a question I asked about pricing ourselves into the market not a comment. Understand the difference. I guess you missed the question mark. I also qualified myself that I was not an economist. Just throwing ideas out there. Relax and stop personally attacking. This is a discussion about how to improve tourism. Also it’s that type of elitism thinking that is kicking us in the behind and this needs to stop.
If I am in New York and in a store, or café somewhere inevitably the conversation comes up that I am from Bermuda. I would immediately ask them if they know where that is? The majority think in the Caribbean and their jaws drop when I say it’s only a 90 minute flight time with a good tail wind. “Really?” they would say. “I didn’t know that!” Something is wrong here. That’s why I am wondering WHO is the BTA targeting? (and past Tourism Depts, let’s be fair). Because the friendly waitress who served me in the NY café who says, “Wow I would love to come and visit someday” after knowing it’s only a 90 minute flight time had to hear it from me first? I venture it’s because that is not the market being targeted (because they are not wealthy enough) and perhaps they should be so because they are just as interested to visit ‘someday’. Somehow we need to help them quicken up the timeframe to start saving for a Bermuda vacation. Our personal ambassadorship can only go so far.
I appreciate the ethusiasm from the BTA! But this isnt a new idea…
Every year the “Falling off the Rock” guys come up with a new video doing this and it has been asked “Why not collaborate to use footage as part of our tourism advertising?”
Just a suggestion – homegrown and cost saving
I totally agree with your suggestion…
Attention of Bill Hanbury and team: “Bermuda and many places around.”
Sent from the desk of Mr. Raymond J. C. Ray
If you have a spare moment, please view my site.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNGpywSs5rI-pvhYB7__Jpg/videos
This is wonderful,just as long as Mr.Hanbury has no intentions of making Admiralty house a private place for tourist in the future. I have been camping there at Cup match for over 28 yrs. My family & I spend all our summer evenings there I’ve watched the skating rink become private & don’t want to see any of the area closed off to Bermudian citizens.Hopefully this was no more than a celebration jump.
I’ll definitely be watching.
Some incredible comments. Makes me wonder why anyone bothers trying anything to attract visitors.
Bermuda has some very welcoming people, but sheesh, it also has some of the biggest whingers on the face of the planet.
If you have nothing good to say, then stay silent. Please.
That’s our problem being very welcoming and allowing our Island being taken away from us.
hit like by mistake…what utter silliness…
The taxpayer is paying in full for the BTA and will likely be doing so for a very long time, especially if this dangerous cliff jumping stunt is indicative of their mind set.
So to suggest we should only say good things about them is the height of stupidity.
The female staff should have jumped also, if they really believed in the photo op idea!
The article was possibly paid for by the BTA.
Not unusual.It’s common practice.
It’s laziness on the part of the BTA though.