Ask anyone to list five tropical island holiday experiences and it’s likely they’ll choose something like Barbados, the Seychelles, the Maldives, Bermuda and the Caribbean.
The Bahamas, with its 700 islands and cays nestling at the top of the Caribbean, rarely gets a mention. This is due largely to confusion and a lack of awareness of the destination among consumers and the UK tourism industry.
The Bahamas Tourist Office in the UK has set itself the task of putting the islands on the map by revealing the individual characteristics of Nassau/Paradise Island, Grand Bahama Island and the Out Islands, through the stories of the real people and adventures that can be discovered in there.
The creative challenge was to express the great number of stories the Bahamas has to tell in a single concept, while getting away from conventional beach-and-sea images. Our solution was to find and reveal a range of real Bahamian characters, each of whom features in a different advertisement that personalises and dramatises the story of a different island.
So we embarked on unearthing the first of these stories and it wasn’t a hard task. In fact, it’s difficult to visit the Bahamas without meeting many larger-than-life personalities and being inspired by the colour, sounds, smells, tastes and visual feasts that make the Bahamas unique.
We uncovered dozens of stories, made many friends and learnt that each Bahamian island offers something truly unique.
It was easy to hop around the islands using either Grand Bahama Island or Nassau/Paradise Island as a base and every story we were told by a local began with a huge smile so we couldn’t help but love the people and the places we visited.
Back in London, the team started to plan a 10-day photo shoot in the islands to bring the stories and the characters to life. The campaign breaks this month, launching with a new consumer website and updated training information for the travel trade at bahamacademy.co.uk.
The stories will unfold in the form of a poster campaign across the UK at railway stations and on London Underground, supported by national press advertising, specialist consumer press and trade press activities, radio promotions and online marketing.
Bahamas Tourist Office director UK, Europe and Asia Karen Seymour said: “The diversity of appeal that our islands possess is almost beyond imagination. Once the stories are out there we believe that UK consumers will want to know more about holidaying in the Bahamas and we’re here to help the trade learn, understand and sell more in the time ahead.”
