BTA: Locals Asked To Review On TripAdvisor

[Part of the Bermuda Tourism Authority’s ‘Tourism Forward’ series]

Locals who like to travel and review their experiences on TripAdvisor are being asked to do the same thing here at home when they eat, shop or explore Bermuda.

The Bermuda Tourism Authority [BTA] says travel reviews written by people who live in the destination have sway online because the opinions of locals are highly valued by travellers.

TripAdvisor attracts 375 million unique visitors each month and is widely considered the most influential travel website in the world. BTA research shows 49 percent of all air visitors to Bermuda visit TripAdvisor before landing on the island.

“For locals to start reviewing on TripAdvisor here in Bermuda just makes a lot of sense,” said Alastair Jack of the BTA, who works with travel sites like Expedia and TripAdvisor.

“If a local reviews a restaurant – like Port O’Call, The Beach or Jamaican Grill – it adds a little more validity and is what travellers are looking for. Visitors want to get in the local culture and having locals tell them where to go – there’s no better way than that.”

For the month of July, the BTA is asking all residents of Bermuda to write about their experiences on TripAdvisor whenever they eat, shop or explore the island.

Alastair Jack: Locals on TripAdvisor:

“This is an easy way to get the wider community involved in our tourism product,” said Glenn Jones, the BTA’s director of public and stakeholder relations. “When one of us contributes an accurate, thoughtful review on TripAdvisor it helps the tourism economy, especially in Bermuda where the community is well travelled.

“We’re asking people to focus their attention on this for the month of July, but I hope people will consider doing this all the time, all year-round. They can do it right on their smartphone before they leave the restaurant or the shop or wherever they are.”

Inspiring more online reviews and growing the content about Bermuda on TripAdvisor is stage two of the BTA’s multi-phased TripAdvisor plan. The plan began in May with free TripAdvisor workshops for hundreds of tourism industry stakeholders, encouraging them to engage with travellers on TripAdvisor to win more business.

However, some voiced reluctance to engage on TripAdvisor, fearing bad reviews would damage their business. Experienced TripAdvisor businesses like Rosedon have found the reverse to be true. A performance of excellence on TripAdvisor has helped the small hotel property compete with larger hotels who have bigger marketing budgets.

Muriel Richardson: Local Businesses on TripAdvisor:

“We find that TripAdvisor reviews on the whole are accurate descriptions of the of guests’ experiences,” said Rosedon General Manager Muriel Richardson, who before retiring, led her property to the top 1 percent of all hotels on TripAdvisor worldwide.

“When there is a bad review it’s an opportunity for us to fix it. To get it right. “We can write a positive response that fixing it is exactly what we’re working on doing and when we’re done we can go back online and say we’ve fixed the problem.”

Any local tourism business looking to grow their presence on TripAdvisor can collect a free TripAdvisor decal from the BTA office in Hamilton or at the Visitor Information Centres at Dockyard or St. George during normal business hours.

The decal is a signal to locals and visitors that a review of their experience is welcomed. If you missed the TripAdvisor workshops in May a presentation is available online in the presentations section of the BTA’s corporate website.

Watch the Tourism Forward video series online at the BTA’s Vimeo channel. Tourism Forward also airs on cable on Channel 82.

#BermudaTourism #BTATourismForward

Category: All, News