“Invest More Advertising Funds Into Tourism”
“The Progressive Labour Party is pleased to see the comments in the media from BTA CEO Bill Hanbury regarding the need for the OBA Government to invest more advertising funds into tourism in order to grow and revitalize Bermuda’s tourism industry,” Shadow Tourism Minister Zane DeSilva said.
“The public should be well aware that in the mid 2000s there was a strong resurgence of Bermuda’s tourism numbers under the PLP Administration.
“This was done by increasing the marketing and advertising investment and consequently brought increased rewards for hotels, airlines, local vendors, and jobs for Bermudians. Unfortunately the financial crisis of 2008 brought a premature end to this resurgence.
“In our Budget reply of 2015, in our plan for tourism, we stated that a PLP Government would increase investment in the marketing and promotion of Bermuda overseas. It is our view that the OBA government cannot reduce the budget allocations for Tourism year after year, and expect significant increase in returns.
“We are happy that Mr. Hanbury, by his comments, sees the value in the PLP’s plan for Tourism revival in Bermuda and believes that increased investment is required for increased reward.”
The public should be well aware that in the mid 2000s there was a strong resurgence of Bermuda’s tourism numbers under the PLP Administration.
Mid 2000s? lol. Should we guess what that actually means? Give us an actual year Zane, then we can check the facts. Don’t be so deliberately obtuse.
how about under Dr Brown? That should clarify it a bit for you.
I seem to recall air arrivals at the highest levels. You may have selective amnesia though!
Oh the good old days!!
untruth.
Business arrivals. Not tourists.
Ahh yes, the Platinum Period. Aka….blur the lines between visitors/tourists and business related arrivals and BAM…increase in tourism.
The push to attract high income black travelers was also pie-in-the-sky Ewartness. Utter failure.
Did he not reside over their decline too, in fact more money was thrown to him at tourism even as it fell off further. In fact, in 2006 over $40m was budgeted for tourism (course we all know how well the PLP managed to stay on budget) and that produced around 299,000 visitors meaning it cost us over $133 per tourist to bring them here. In 2014 we budgeted $26.5m and produced some 236,000 for a cost to taxpayers of over $112 per. Though I think this is just reflective of the air arrivals and I am not sure if they are solely tourists or business as well
Funny how they trumpet this out there as some great accomplishment… during the mid 2000′s the global economy was flush with huge quantities of disposable incomes. Hardly an accomplishment to talk about getting people to come here when they can, but the global economy is no where near what it was 10 years ago. The only truly effective metric is a ratio of how much visitors we have now in relation to then as it relates to how much disposable income is available now in comparison to then. Has those ratio changed, have they gone up, have they gone down?
1999 The first year of the PLP, the Tourism arivals dropped by 15,000 people in their second year they fell by a further 23,000 people.
The year 2010 2011 and 2012 under the PLP were around the 236,000 total arrivals, whereas in 1997 and 1998 under the UBP, the arrivals were around the 370,000 total… .
The PLP destroyed 46% of our tourism industry. so Zane, you talk nonsense.
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ST.INT.ARVL
Watching your statement is correct… As much as you all hate to hear it.. 2007 saw record numbers. This under DR. Brown’s tenue as Minister of Tourism, Dr. Brown worked hard to move these numbers, along with your old Dept. Of Tourism Team.
Let’s have it Hanbury and BTA!
370,000 in the last year of the UBP, v 306,000 in the year you refer to.
You missed the record by 64,000 people, 17% short…sorry.
ps remind me how the stats were reorganized in 2006, 2007?
I have a great idea! Why doesn’t the BTA forgo their Bonuses this year and reinvest them into tourism. That’s a nice healthy start to increasing the tourism spending budget.
Yeah! And everyone quit the BTA and then we can hire subpar people who have little to offer, then we can hire a company like Global Hue to piss our money away!
You need to pay people properly and make the job attractive in order to get quality employees with the right credentials.
This is not the Civil Service, no paying people for the sake of it!
I’m sure Zane already knows the names of the overseas consultants he would “invest” borrowed taxpayer funds in.
He loves giving away other people’s money doesn’t he.
If Zane and Hanbury agree on the “answer”, then there is a high probability that the answer is incorrect.
Hanbury – do something/anything right to show you are actually doing a good job before you receive another bonus or ask for additional funding. So far, you have done nothing to justify your hiring or your ridiculous compensation package.
I hope Zane isn’t using the drop off of tourism from the 9/11 2001 tragedy, as a base statistic to say that the PLP turned it around in the mid 00′s. That would be disgusting.
Lets bring back Global Hue with their no-bid contracts. They can double us again and spend millions on ads on gospel TV that no-one watches.
Then they can gives us rides on their own corporate jet. Or is that just for friends of Don?
Zane, do you think we’d have a few more dollars for advertising if your party had been more fiscally competent while in power?
Zane’s/PLP’s solution to every problem: Just spend more money. I guess it’s a good way to win votes especially among those who lack financial sense/discipline.
And I’m still waiting to read Chris Famous’ oped piece about the AG’s recent report since he talks a big game about “keeping them honest”. Jokes… the lot of them!
Here are the numbers of air arrivals. They managed a brief surge pre-recession with roughly double the budget of today’s Tourism Authority.
2000 332191
2001 287153
2002 283957
2003 256563
2004 271607
2005 269576
2006 298962
2007 305548
2008 263613
2009 235866
2010 232262
Of course, the PLP didn’t bother to sustain it and so Desilva is in-effect attacking post 2007 PLP policies as well. The hypocrisy is astounding.
Thanks for the numbers. clearly it peaked in 2007 and the falloff was clearly tied into the recession in 2008.
To help us out why don’t you show the numbers under the OBA!
Interesting is those numbers never peaked higher than they were before they took government.
Because I haven’t updated my spreadsheet in the last few years.
Oh so now the PLP like Bill Hanbury?
Is this amnesia again or some bi-polar condition?
WHERE’S OUR $20 MILLION ON PORT ROYAL ZANE???? WHAT PART DID YOU PLEASE ON THE 2010-2012 MALFEASANCE IN THE AUDITOR’S REPORT. That’s all we want to hear from you
I just passed hanbury laughing all the way to the bank.
How about Zane donate some of the public’s funds from Port Royal toward Tourism Advertising?
Fact: The Eastern seaboard is seeing ZERO commercials advertising Bermuda’s proximity, beauty and culture. Ask someone New Jersey to Boston if they have seen any.
Three hours, wheels up to feet up, from Boston or NY/NJ, but nobody knows.
just sayin’ . . .
Great catch slogan there. Something like “A short trip to a perfect holiday” that we used to use. One of the reasons people do choose Bermuda is that short flight to get here. No matter what we do, we can’t screw up our location like we have done everything else.
ZERO commercials because BTA believe “social media” will save them and tourism. You have to be on facebook, twitter, instagram, youtube or read blogger’s tidbits after their free trip courtesy of BTA to catch a glimpse of Bermuda. BTA did run video commercials in elevators in New York City buildings, does that count? People on east coast know about Bermuda they are not going to pay the premium for what Bermuda is offering.
These statistics are irrelevant in comparing Visitor air arrivals.
In the ‘Mid 2000′s’ Bermuda’s population was near 70,000 due to a very strong international business sector. There were many more expat and insurance sector jobs on the island. More business travel to the island and more friends and family visiting this sector and contributing to the economy.
Don’t we remember the divisive and unwelcoming PLP government that we had in power?? You don’t? Well the 8,000 people that packed up and left Bermuda because Bermuda “feels” 3rd world and unstable under a PLP government do.
Any time you lose roughly 7-9 % of a population due to crummy government is going to lead to a weaker economy and lower air arrivals.
For all you nay sayers and haters of the BTA who want to ignore the truth…….
I recommend you get on your knees with Zane and praise the entire BTA team and Bill Hanberry for their tremendous work and results thus far in a short period of time.
As a true Bermudian….. It is great to see the island finally starting to sprout some signs of new life and investment again.
So much better now than when we were back in the “mid 2000′s with Zane, Brown, Birch and crew…..
Thank you to the current Govt and the BTA for your professionalism, thick skin and your determination to put Bermuda back on the right track.