A new National Tourism Marketing Committee (NTMC) has been established under the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) to focus on the strategic marketing of niche tourism product offerings, the state tourism agency said Friday.
This was revealed as the BTMI rolled out a major rebranding and marketing campaign for the island’s tourism product – Little Island, Big Barbados – a play on the variety of offerings in various market segments in the destination despite its small size.
The rebranding coincides with tourism’s official reopening following the COVID-19 lockdowns that restricted travel over the past 14 months.
During the official rebranding ceremony held virtually, BTMI chair Roseanne Myers officially introduced the NTMC that will promote the niche areas.
The new committee is described as a forum for leaders to assist in the development and implementation of marketing strategies, and to provide a platform for national cross-sectoral participation and buy-in to the promotion of the Barbados brand, in domestic and international markets.
It will be responsible for creating a collaborative, data-driven strategy to better market Barbados and create a planning and executing framework for both the BTMI and Barbados Tourism Product Authority (BTPA) to share plans and seek participation in the island’s marketing.
The NTMC also has the objective of broadening the reach of the BTMI and BTPA by utilizing the footprint of other public and private sector agencies to exploit new opportunities, source markets and gateways; develop expanded niche marketing strategies and viable revenue streams through strong private and public sector partnerships, and to incorporate the use of authentic themes and experiences into collateral and market strategies for the destination by collaborating with relevant agencies.
The NTMC is to be made up of representatives from a range of agencies and institutions that fall under the Ministries of Creative Economy, Culture and Sport, the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Ministry of Tourism and International Transport, Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Blue Economy, the Ministry of International Business and Industry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, as well as the University of the West Indies, labour unions, the private sector and the Royal Barbados Police Force.
Myers gave the assurance that this new committee will allow for stronger execution of plans, projects and ideas to continuously enhance Barbados’ brand.
“It is a forum, it is a platform,” said Myers. “For many speeches, we have talked about ‘all hands on deck’. The NTMC is the deck that we want us to gather on to really continue this journey of collaboration.”
She promised that several niche areas will be enhanced or introduced through “niche partnerships” under the NTMC, adding that experts in some areas of interest have already offered to provide free services.
Myers said there were opportunities in niche sub-categories of tourism such as rum, heritage and medical tourism, the Barbados Welcome Stamp and Halal tourism.
She also pointed out that keen interest will be paid to other segments such as romance travel; premium sports; agro-tourism; the large group market segments of meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE); niche dive and maritime adventure; Barbados and African Diasporic tourism; and the five small group market segments of social, military, education, religious and fraternal (SMERF) tourism.
“We won’t do all at the same time, but we certainly will have a plan that this is what we can roll out to bring those persons to our shores,” said Myers.
“The way it works is that we will set the product clubs up and determine a chair and pull together all of the agencies [from the relevant government ministries] where there is an interest under those niche partnerships. The BTMI staff will be assigned at the director level and at the junior level. This is all hands on deck.
“Barbados is going back into the market, not in the same way we left, but in a way we can really take full advantage of all the partnerships we know have all existed but have never really helped properly, but we are really holding hands now.”
BTMI is also to introduce a Product Enhancement Committee (PEC) later this year, said the BTMI chair, who stressed that “product enhancement and product development is central to the authenticity that we need to drive”.
The PEC is expected to be chaired by BTMI director Ronnie Carrington and is to collaborate with relevant agencies to create content and sell tourism to nationals through awareness projects, among other objectives.
(MM)
