A group of innovative Bermudians has launched a new project to use Instagram to help promote the Island’s international reputation.

The “Bermuda Dreaming” team plans to use eye-catching images of the Island on its website as well as the popular social medium to boost tourism and visitor numbers.

The initiative has been spearheaded by photographer Amanda Temple together with Meredith Andrews, Alexandra Mosher, Nhuri Bashir, Laura Lyons, Karriem Sharieff and Alex Masters.

Ms Temple said the idea was sparked after attending the Tourism Summit earlier this year and listening to the Bermuda Tourism Authority’s Victoria Isley speak.

“One thing in particular that struck me was that Victoria Isley said that it is an average of 120 days between when a tourist first sees Bermuda to them arriving on the Island,” she added.

“She also shared the five stages of vacations: dreaming, researching, booking, experiencing and finally sharing.

“It is the first and last of these that I am most drawn to and where I think we can make a difference.”

The group hopes to gather as many people as possible to actively promote Bermuda through Instagram and has already held a series of meetings to co-ordinate the way forward.

The latest figures suggest that there are 300 million active users on Instagram, 75 million accessing Instagram daily and of those about 60 per cent are between 18-34.

The Bermuda Dreaming team hopes to tap into this vast reservoir of potential young visitors.

Ms Temple told The Royal Gazette: “So many people are already active on Instagram, shooting lovely photos of Bermuda and are currently sharing and using hashtags, we are just hoping we can inspire people do it more frequently and with purpose.

“One of the main goals of this, and the need for lots of people to contribute, is to make that feed both more visually appealing and actually related to Bermuda.

“The added benefit is that while sharing the Island’s beauty, Instagram is also a way to share each of our individual endeavours, be it a product, service, hotel or organisation.”

Ms Temple has created accounts on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook with the username bermudadreaming.

She said: “The hope is that everyone will start using hashtags that will lead a broad audience to discover Bermuda and that the bermudadreaming hashtag will be used by those wishing their images to be shared on the Bermuda Dreaming social media.”

The group’s website is currently under construction and they have also planned an “Instameet” for April 12 in St George’s at 3:30pm on the steps of St Peter’s Church.

“These will be fun walkabouts where we can shoot, chat and gather content to post, not just on the day, but going forward,” said Ms Temple.