Tourism chiefs set to steer industry into the future

Nothing will be off the table when key industry figures meet at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess to brainstorm a blueprint for the industry.

The discussions will form the basis of a masterplan, designed to guide Bermuda’s tourism policies for the next decade and beyond.

Malcolm Butterfield, chairman of the Bermuda Tourism Board, said the new organization had already hosted a series of consultation sessions with hoteliers, business owners and Department of Tourism staff.

But he plans to narrow the field down to a maximum of 30 key figures for this weekend’s retreat.

Profiles

The event will be ‘facilitated’ by U.S. marketing guru Peter Yesawich. His job will be to moderate the debate and keep discussions focused and on point.

He will arrive for the weekend conference armed with a slew of statistics and visitor profiles on what customers want from Bermuda.

Mr Butterfield said it was essential that Bermuda focused on what modern tourists wanted.

“It is not so much what worked 30 years ago or what we think might work now. That mindset of ‘back in the day this is how it was done’ has to go.

“We are in a different world now. Everybody is in the tourism business. We have to have our own product. We have to define ourselves and let people know what Bermuda is about.

“To do that we need to focus on what the visitors are telling us they want.”

The notion that the customer is always right will be central to the discussions.

From high-end dining, conference facilities and casino gambling to the type of shops and cafes on Front Street, the debate will attempt to address what visitor’s want and what their priorities are.

Maxwell Burgess, a former MP and a member of the new board, said: “The customer will determine success or failure. If the customer says they want hot dog and mayo and a coke and you continue to serve them something else – watch them go to the guy next door who will serve them hot dog and coke.

“This plan has to be customer driven. What do visitors want and how do we deliver it to them?”

Mr Butterfiled said the plan wouldn’t necessarily require Government to do and pay for everything.

He said a new generation of entrepreneurs would be central to the success or failure of tourism. The plan would provide them with a guide to the kind of projects visitors would look to spend their cash on and provide policymakers with an idea of which areas of private business to incentivise.

Before that can happen, he said, Bermuda needed to be able to answer some basic questions about what it was trying to do.

Our brand

“Where should tourism be going? What should be our brand? What is the visitor profile we should be targeting?”

Mr Butterfield added: “We’ve got to go beyond anecdotal – whatever we come up with has got to be supported by evidence.”

The discussions from this weekend’s retreat will be the basis of the new tourism masterplan.