Here is the new Tourism commercial that has just been released to promote the island's sports tourism sector in an industry which is getting more competitive all the time according to this article in Caribbean Journal.
I kinda get what they were trying to do but I'm a 41 year old Antiguan who's never seen Sir Viv play cricket. I know about him and to me his incredible feats are accomplishments I learned about from essentially historical accounts. He's one of our greatest sportsmen for sure, but many here and across the Caribbean don't really relate and for sure hardly any potential visitors from the US have ever heard of him. The golf angle is totally weird and I feel that it's seriously time we market tourism and especially the segment many here are overly obsessed with, Sport Tourism, using younger more dynamic characters. If we are going to use a "star" to market our tourism or sport tourism, then I think we need a rethink. Antigua's America's Cup winner, Shannon Falcone or Antigua's international Kitesurfing sensation, Andre Phillip would be a thousand times more appealing showing off Antigua in my opinion. I mean, think about sailing and how many come to Antigua because of it? Imagine how much trickle down happens in this economy because of sailing. Compare that to golf or even cricket. We really need to examine these sectors carefully and do some very good market research in the future if we want to be competitive. I mean if we had direct flights from India then I would say lets push this all the way, but for now our markets are not all cricket hotspots. Our successful competitors who were cutting cane a few year ago have done the research.
It's time to think outside the box!
I kinda get what they were trying to do but I'm a 41 year old Antiguan who's never seen Sir Viv play cricket. I know about him and to me his incredible feats are accomplishments I learned about from essentially historical accounts. He's one of our greatest sportsmen for sure, but many here and across the Caribbean don't really relate and for sure hardly any potential visitors from the US have ever heard of him. The golf angle is totally weird and I feel that it's seriously time we market tourism and especially the segment many here are overly obsessed with, Sport Tourism, using younger more dynamic characters. If we are going to use a "star" to market our tourism or sport tourism, then I think we need a rethink. Antigua's America's Cup winner, Shannon Falcone or Antigua's international Kitesurfing sensation, Andre Phillip would be a thousand times more appealing showing off Antigua in my opinion. I mean, think about sailing and how many come to Antigua because of it? Imagine how much trickle down happens in this economy because of sailing. Compare that to golf or even cricket. We really need to examine these sectors carefully and do some very good market research in the future if we want to be competitive. I mean if we had direct flights from India then I would say lets push this all the way, but for now our markets are not all cricket hotspots. Our successful competitors who were cutting cane a few year ago have done the research.
It's time to think outside the box!
