The Barbados Tourism Authority’s (BTA) marketing plan is more than Follow Me To Crop Over.
That is the word from president/chief executive officer of the BTA, David Rice, who said the promotion was being undertaken in all of the markets.
However, he did not say if there would be a presence in St Lucia next month for that country’s Jazz Festival.
“We are working very closely with the National Cultural Foundation [NCF] to promote Crop Over in all of our markets.
“We’ve had two meetings so far with all of our teams, markets in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and across the Caribbean and Brazil, working in terms of television advertising, newspaper advertising, making sure that we have a concerted programme to bring more visitors to Barbados for Crop Over, but also expanding the reach of the type of visitor that we bring here.
“We’re working very closely with our airline partners, so we can get better fares and better rates as well,” Rice told the WEEKEND NATION.
Adding that Jet Blue was introducing an additional service out of New York from July, Rice said: “It [the marketing] goes far, far beyond the reach of Crop Over, it’s much bigger. I think the word is much more concerted, in terms of the approach we’re working with the NCF, and it’s more dynamic in terms of how we’re going to promote and the [methods] we’re going to use to expand the reach,” he stated.
He said discussions were also under way with BET to reach the market in the United States.
In terms of the Caribbean, Rice said Crop Over promotions would not be specific to a particular programme or event, but would be all-inclusive.
As for the Follow Me To Crop Over brand, he said it was a “very short programme in terms of how we marketed it, now we’re doing it throughout all of our markets, which we have never done before”.