HAMILTON, Bermuda – The Bermuda Tourism website has seen extraordinary increases in visitors, a spike attributed to a new digital marketing strategy Premier Dr. Ewart Brown said today.
Visits to the BermudaTourism.com website are up 82% for the second quarter of 2009 when compared with the same period in 2008. About 301,000 visits were logged.
Page views were up 50% to 2.7 million and the bounce rate was down 49%. The bounce rate figure reflects the instances of consumers visiting the site and then quickly leaving.
“These numbers are very encouraging. In fact they are exciting,” said Premier Brown, Minister of Tourism and Transport. “I have supreme confidence we are moving in the right direction on our digital marketing strategy and I will be compelling our internet group to keep their foot on the gas pedal.”
Bermuda Tourism’s visitor arrival numbers, along with the web statistics, were unveiled today during the Ministry of Tourism and Transport’s 2009 second quarter report.
In the area of internet search, numbers are up as well.
Major natural search initiatives have moved BermudaTourism.com to the number one results position in Google searches of the word: “Bermuda”.
In the past BermudaTourism.com has been at third and sometimes fourth position.
Premier Brown said: “We believe this trend will continue which is important because search is a cost effective way of touching our target audience and we will continue to increase investment not only with our own website development but also with our online distribution partners.”
Online distribution partners say they have also seen sharp increases year-over-year as part of the Bermuda Department of Tourism’s digital marketing strategy.
• Expedia is up 33% year to date
• Orbitz up 45%
• Travelocity up 35%
• Purely Bermuda, a UK online operator, up 36%
At the start of the year, the Bermuda Department of Tourism announced it had hired iCrossing to assist with a new comprehensive digital marketing strategy.
