Half price hotel rooms create a booking buzz
A half price hotel offer got booking lines ringing yesterday, according to preliminary reports.
The Royal Gazette reported yesterday how several of the Island's top hotels offered 50 percent off rooms for visits before the end of October.
It was hoped that the 48-hour sale, which closed last night, would lure tourists back to Bermuda during the economic downturn.
Bermuda Department of Tourism, Bermuda Hotel Association and Bermuda Alliance for Tourism (BAT) joined forces for the discount with hotel rooms as cheap as $175. The offer was advertised on the Bermuda Tourism website.
Yesterday afternoon, BAT chairman Jonathan Crellin told The Royal Gazette: "Everybody is reportedly getting lots of calls, phones are ringing and the internet's buzzing away."
Mr. Crellin said there had also been "a lot of interest" in another promotion, which saw JetBlue flights between Bermuda and Boston offered for $99 plus taxes from Friday until yesterday, for travel between June 15 and September 8.
Mr. Crellin said figures on the hotel offer would be collated once it closed, and a fuller picture should be available in a couple of days.
The summer sale prompted praise yesterday from Shadow Minister of Tourism Michael Dunkley, who said: "The United Bermuda Party would like to commend hoteliers and Bermuda Tourism for its 48-hour, 50 percent discount promotion. For more than a year, we have been calling for Tourism to restore its working relationship with hotels and to demonstrate greater agility in responding to market conditions. The promotion indicates progress on these fronts.
"The promotion amounts to a major sacrifice for participating hotels and we congratulate them for taking the risk. We would add that this industry offer is unprecedented and a strong indication of just how challenging the market has become. Clearly, it was put together in light of very bad business projections."
However, Sen. Dunkley said he would like to know how much the Department of Tourism invested in the promotion and how extensive the related communications campaign had been.
