Bermuda’s tourism industry remained stagnant in 2014 with a nominal 0.8 per cent increase in total visitors to the Island.

However, the Bermuda Tourism Authority (BTA) has vowed that 2015 will be the decisive year in building air arrivals, which tumbled by 5.1 per cent last year.

Although the year-end visitor arrival statistics released yesterday showed visitor spending down by 11.3 per cent to $280.2 million, and individual tourist spending down 6.6 per cent, the BTA remains “upbeat” about growth this year, according to Bill Hanbury, the chief executive officer.

For every dollar spent by a cruise visitor, an air visitor spends $11 on the Island — and boosting those numbers depends on “targeting the right people with the right message at the right time”, said Victoria Isley, the BTA’s chief sales marketing officer.

Arrivals by sea increased with cruise ship passengers up 4.7 per cent and yacht arrivals up 24.6 per cent. The hike in yacht arrivals can be largely attributed to the biennial Newport to Bermuda Yacht Race. A 6.9 per cent decrease in American tourists who make up the majority of our visitor base made a dent in the air arrivals, although visitors from Canada increased by 5.5 per cent.

The BTA, launched in April 2014 to help to boost the industry, predicts growth in the year ahead. A new marketing strategy focusing on “experiential travel” as well as working with media and travel partners, the BTA says, is “starting to take root”.

Mr Hanbury said: “Last year was a year of transition for the Tourism Authority. We worked very hard to produce positive results in 2014, but we had less control over the outcome than we would have liked.

“In 2015, the BTA team started executing the plan we presented to stakeholders at the Bermuda Tourism Summit. Many of those stakeholders have told us they’re upbeat about the prospects of that plan and internally we’re upbeat on the strategy as well.”

He said the organisation had “totally embraced the big challenge of reversing 30 years of tourism decline — the leadership and whole team are really determined that 2015 will be the year the downturn is reversed”.

Mr Hanbury said the BTA was adapting to a small tourism budget, using its resources to woo specific target groups. Experiential travel focuses on combining authentic stories from Bermuda with targeted retail promotions. One such promotion is the Pink Sale featuring up to 50 per cent room rate discounts at participating hotels. In the first quarter, the sale showed a rise for this year, the organisation reported: reservations were up 45 per cent while room nights rose by 24 per cent — generating a modest increase in takings of $813,000 over last year’s figures.

The organisation plans to highlight the Island’s vacation rental market, as well as cultural tourism for the East End.

The BTA also mentioned it will be working with a new advertising agency partner in the United States and Canada markets, and has taken on new social media and public relations firms.

Ms Isley said the BTA’s Instagram campaign in tandem with Travel and Leisure had proven the most successful of its kind that the magazine had ever done with a partner.

Emphasising the Island’s proximity to New York markets and its separateness from the Caribbean helped sell the Island as a unique destination, closer to the US than would-be travellers might know.

With Bermuda just a 90-minute flight from New York, she said the Island competed more with a seaside resort like the Hamptons at the end of Long Island, rather than Caribbean destinations.

“The real strategy is to get into the hearts and minds of the right travellers,” she said — adding that the BTA was adapting its marketing messages to individual airlines.

Other measures designed to enhance the product include a review of the Bermuda vacation rental market, the growth of the Island’s ambassador programme and proposed improvements to the visitor experience in St George’s.

“With the right, properly researched experiences in 2015 we can impact the visitor spend number in a positive way,” Mr Hanbury added.

Although the primary focus is on air arrivals, the BTA also aims to get cruise visitors spending more on the Island by connecting them with “the kind of only-in-Bermuda experiences they can’t get anywhere else”.

A complete performance review of the BTA’s activities in 2014 will be presented to the public in the BTA’s annual report due this spring.

Whatever the outcome, the Island is unlikely to see a return to the spring break throngs that used to descend during College Weeks — but Bermuda’s climate could potentially be a sell for college sports teams to train during the winter months.

“Dartmouth College in New Hampshire right now has two feet of snow on its lacrosse field,” Mr Hanbury said.