Bahamas Turns Up The Heat With New Campaign

Even the best destinations need a marketing refresh now and then.

Officials from Bahamas Tourism rolled into Toronto on Thursday and put on a splashy, colourful event on the 43rd floor of the posh Bisha Hotel Toronto, complete with a fabulous drummer, craft cocktails and excellent food. They also displayed a couple of cool videos with Bahamian-American rock star Lenny Kravitz, using his famous “Fly Away” song to launch the new “Fly Away Bahamas” campaign.

Kravitz has a place on the quiet Bahamian island of Eleuthera, where it’s said he was inspired to write the Grammy Award-winning “Fly Away.” He also helped design some of the rooms at The Bisha Hotel Toronto.

Joy Jibrilu, MInistry of Tourism and Aviation Director Genereal, said the campaign is aimed at boosting travel to lesser-known destinations in the Bahamas.

“For the first time we’re going to tell the story of all 16 islands,” she told assembled guests at the evening event.

“Folks know about Nassau and Paradise Island,” Jibrilu said in an interview with TravelPulse Canada. “In today’s environment where people want to really get away it’s all about the outer islands experience.”

“How do you tell the story of 16 different islands. Every island in the Caribbean is unique. But Barbados is one (island). Jamaica is one.

Jibrilu said the variety of The Bahamas is incredible.

“The Cays are amazing. The water in Exuma is incredible. I went to Cape Santa Maria (on Long Island) and nothing prepared me for that beach. Even me. At night the stars were like, ‘holy shoot.’”

Jibrilu said she wants to work with agents and advisors.

“We know that no matter how digitalized and technologically advance things get, travel agents are still the ones who will push and promote a destination. Agents are used a great deal in Canada and we work very, very closely with them.”

Bahamas Tourism showed off a wonderful video of a woman who lives on the outer island of Eleuthera and grows pineapple. She goes by the name of “Lady Di” and she’s a natural on the camera; relaxed and funny and oozing the kind of authenticity travellers seem to crave these days.

“When we created that video, it’s just a lady minding her own business, not pretending to be anything she isn’t. She grows the pineapple and when we launched that video, within the shortest period of time there were more than a million hits. People keep saying, ‘I want to go where she is.’”

The idea now is to use that similar approach on other islands, Jibrilu said.

“That’s what people want. We also have a program at the tourism ministry we call People to People. We pair up visitors who want to meet up with locals and get away from the resort. You go to a Bahamian home and you share a meal. You can go out with them to the market, to church, whatever you like. They’ll go to places they never would have seen.”

Jibrilu said the program has been going for 30 years and is expanding rapidly.

“We’ve had other destinations approach us to ask if they can send people over and learn about it. We say ‘sure’ because it works. We’ve gone in the last seven years from about 300 ambassadors to more than 2,000 around the Bahamas.

“And not just that. Some of our original ambassadors from 40 years ago are still at it.”

Jibrilu said the program is now on all 16 islands Bahamas Tourism promotes.

“It’s been some time since we’ve had a new campaign,” said Tourism and Aviation Minister Dionisio D'Aguilar. “We’re very enthusiastic about this return to the marketplace.”

D’Aguilar said interest in The Bahamas is strong from North America and that Canadian visits were up 14.4% last year.