Elbow Beach Resort is looking to promote Bermuda as a ‘destination of substance’ via a grassroots marketing campaign and its new Adventure Camp programme.Formally partnering with several of the Island’s marine and cultural organisations, Elbow Beach is launching a programme for guests that leverages Bermuda’s existing natural assets.“Travel these days is all about experiences. People want to have something to go home and tell their friends about,” said Edward Shapard, the general manager for Elbow Beach.The primary focus, however, is on families travelling with children. The idea originated out of their popular kids’ programme last year. Elbow’s Adventure Camp aims to get the children involved, which will in turn get the parents involved as well.“The days are gone where the parents run off to have a vacation and the kids stay home,” he said. “The kids really do determine where the family goes on holiday. So we are targeting that group. Elbow does children well.”Through the new partnerships, the resort now offers sailing lessons via the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club (RHADC) for children as young as five years old all the way up to adults, scuba lessons through their on-site partner Blue Water Diver which can provide diving certifications for those ten or older, history tours given by Dr Edward Harris, the executive director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum; and on-site horticulture tours of the Elbow grounds.Elbow is also working on a programme with the National Gallery for tourists interested in photography.The aim is to showcase the Island as the destination rather than individual hotel properties — which is a different approach to some of Bermuda’s competitors which are all-inclusive resorts.“An all-inclusive (resort) is a walled garden,” said Mr Shapard. “They say there is so much to do inside the walled garden because you don’t want to leave, go outside and see what’s on the other side of the wall but Bermuda is easy to get around and has so much to offer. It’s part and parcel to the National Tourism plan that calls for leveraging Bermuda’s natural assets.”Sailing utilises one of Bermuda’s best features: the water.“We have all the coaches and all the boats and we at the club figured there is no reason why tourists should not be taking sailing lessons,” said Neil Redburn, rear commodore of the RHADC. “We’re focused on youth and junior sailing though there is no age limit for learning how to sail. When Edward (Shapard) came along and approached us, we thought it was a great idea.”“Having a child at five years be able to go out and learn how to sail, it’s a really interesting and unique offering,” added Mr Shapard.To up the ante, the Dinghy Club is also offering US Sailing accredited classes. So as scuba divers get their PADI books stamped, tourists on vacation here can bring back their accreditation to their local sailing clubs.Targeting this sailing demographic is no coincidence. According to Mr Shapard, one of the largest quarter-over-quarter lifts for the hotel last year was the period around the Newport to Bermuda race.“It really is our core tourist demographic and this is something where Bermuda is in a class of its own,” said Mr Shapard. “It is one of the things that the destination does that sets it apart from the competition.”The resort is also pushing sailing as team building activity for incentive sales groups (think State Farm and others), showing there is another option besides golf.“When I mention this activity to meeting planners the response is overwhelming,” he said.To market their new programme, the group — Shapard and Redburn, Dr Harris and Chris Gauntlett of Blue Water Divers — joined others from Elbow and headed to Buckhead, Atlanta to beat the drum for Bermuda.“Buckhead is in the top ten most affluent communities in North America,” explained Mr Shapard.There, the group had a reception with more than 40 travel planners and then a press lunch with nine journalists. As a result, three journalists will be visiting Bermuda to write about their experiences.The contingent also met with the Buckhead Coalition, an organisation of top executives and civic leaders located in the area that is headed up by Garth Peters, a Bermudian.CEO of Coca Cola is a member along with many other high-profile executives.“You really have some big hitters living in that area,” said Mr Redburn. “What was interesting was that everyone we met, whether they were travel planners or writers, was that they had all been to Bermuda before but ten, 15 or 20 years ago and they had either forgotten how close it was to them and just assumed it was beach and golf and that was it.“They loved the royal aspect of the RHADC they wanted to talk about that, driving on the left and red post boxes. With Ed Harris providing such a rich history of the Island, it was all very attractive to them.”Next stop for the Elbow Beach contingency is Beneath the Sea, the largest consumer scuba and dive shows in the US, at the end of the month.They are also looking to do two more media events this year.