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Tourism Authority spent $5.4m on promotions

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Beach boost: tourists enjoy the range of improvements made to access, parking and lighting at Horseshoe Beach, Southampton (Photograph by Akil Simmons)

The Bermuda Tourism Authority has revealed more than $12 million in external contracts as part of requirements of public access to information legislation.

The contracts included a total of $5.4 million for marketing and promotions, $4.7 million in rent for officers in Bermuda and in New York and $390,000 in funding for local events.

Of the 23 BTA contracts detailed in The Official Gazette last week, the largest was related to rent.

The BTA paid $3.553 million to Royal Realty Corp for office rental in New York — a fee that covers the period from November last year until November 2029.

The authority also paid $1.144 million to Washington Properties (Bermuda) Limited for its on-island office.

The contract started in January 2014 will end next January.

A multiyear co-operative marketing agreement with JetBlue cost the BTA $2.745 million.

The agreement came into effect in January 2017 and will continue until the end of this year.

The BTA also paid MMGY Global LLC, a company with offices in the US and Spain, $1.02 million for marketing and advertising services from last January until the end of this year.

Saks & Company, the company that owns upmarket store Saks Fifth Avenue, travel planning business Virtuoso Ltd and hospitality software company Cvent Inc were also hired for marketing and promotional work, and got $250,000, $75,866 and $53,813 respectively.

US-based travel marketing firm Miles Partnership signed a $575,340 contract with the BTA for website hosting and digital marketing.

Expedia Travel, a US-based travel website, were awarded two contracts worth a total of $300,000, both started in January and will run until the end of the year.

Reach Global Marketing got an $85,000 contract to promote the island in Canada between January last year and the end of this year.

Britain’s Media Agency Group, which highlighted the island with a high-tech billboard campaign in the UK, got a $304,198 contract that ended in January.

The BTA also hired the US-based Turner PR group for public relations with a two-year $504,000 contract which will finish at the end of next year.

The authority also made cash contributions to several events on the island.

The Bermuda Festival of Performing Arts got $75,000 for its 2019 festival and Pink Sand Entertainment was given $100,000 for its Made in Bermuda events last year.

The Bermuda National Athletics Association were awarded $160,000 for the 2019/2020 Bermuda Marathon Weekend, the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club will receive $55,000 for the 2019 Argo Group Gold Cup and the BTA will pay $300,000 for the BDA 3’s World Team Championship tournament as part of a multiyear agreement.

The BTA also agreed to sponsor Bermudian athlete Flora Duffy through a multiyear sponsorship agreement valued at $160,000.

Other contracts listed included $78,000 to Associated Luxury Hotels International for a single-year membership in its global alliance, $159,300 to Total Research Associates for data entry of landing cards and $104,100 to Destination Analysts Inc for air and cruise exit surveys.