By David Dodwell Chairman’s Corner

Welcome to the second issue of the Chairman’s Corner.

Our goal with this communication is to keep you informed on the developments at the Bermuda Tourism Authority. The success of tourism impacts us all and we want everyone to be involved to help us get there.

You all should have heard about the National Tourism Plan. As I said in the last article, we are going to be talking about this plan a great deal in the coming months. One part of the plan that we have looked at very seriously is the invitation to invest and give focus to our physical infrastructure — in other words, the bricks and mortar that make up the product that is Bermuda tourism. This includes our hotels, our beaches, the boats that take our visitors out, taxis, buses, ferries and the fun things, or things of interest that are available for our tourists.

When considering a vacation, today’s traveller has the world to choose from. Our historical advantage of being close to the Eastern Seaboard is no longer enough. Tourists today are looking for more. We have to give our potential customer real reasons to choose Bermuda.

We know the cost of building and servicing a hotel room, from construction to operating is proportionately higher in Bermuda than in most other competitive destinations. We know the cost of living is high in Bermuda, which means we have to pay our team members more. But today’s tourist cares greatly about getting value for the money they pay. And if they can get better value somewhere else, they will go there.

This does not mean we have to be cheaper. In fact, offering discounts or being cheaper than the competition is a formula for disaster. With our cost structures, we just can’t offer our products for less than those who operate their businesses with much less expenses. But what we can do is to offer more value, be more innovative, be more attractive and be more exciting.

And this concept is not just confined to our physical product. Our service levels, from the moment our client first makes contact with Bermuda to the last contact they have at the airport, has to be nothing less than exceptional. We are competing in a world of ever growing excellence, with one destination always building the next best attraction, resort or activity and we have to be better.

The new tourism of Bermuda is going to require creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and hard work. It is going to require investment, critical thinking and equity. The National Tourism Plan points this out and suggests a need for substantial capital investment. Some of that investment is going to have to come from, at least initially, the Tourism Authority. This means change and we look forward to sharing more details with you over the coming months.