Vexed Bermoothes

On September 5, Sales Focus announced that it would be outsourcing sales for the Bermuda Department of Tourism (which resulted in the controversial layoff of a team of Bermudian civil servants based in New York).  They said:

“Our proven process allows a quick, clean and focused launch of new [sales] territories in less than 45 days.”

More than 100 days later, where’s the beef?

Update:  well, they were fast with a rebuttal pointing out that arrivals from New York in September thru November were up nearly 13 percent over 2007 (from 9,724 to 10,974).  In other words 1,200 travelers.  A few points worth mentioning:

• Government spent $500,000 on a promotion with the NY Mets in this period (as well as other promotions whose cost has not been revealed).
• This period also included the Music Festival, supposedly designed to attract large numbers of visitors to Bermuda (whose substantial cost has not been revealed).  Beyonce’s entourage alone accounts for a big part of the increase!
  
• These figures appear to show bulk arrivals – including Bermudian and business travelers – not tourists.
• The majority of Bermuda’s connecting flights come through NY;  it’s a stretch to say that the increase was due to the NY marketing efforts.
• New York arrivals are down 6 percent for the year.

In today’s economy, we all need good news.  But our Government must be transparent with the facts to have a fair evaluation of value for money.  My read is that we have spent anywhere from $500 to a couple of thousands of dollars EACH to attract these additional travelers <cough>.

In past quarters, detailed information has been given for certain travel segments (cruise versus air).  Now we’ve shifted to certain geographic segments …picking and choosing the best news to spin.  Just give us the raw data and let us decide!