Two Cents Tuesday

Bermuda has officially gone mobile. Well, sort of. According to travel tech watchdog Tnooz, Bermuda tourism is mid-way through its mobile advertising campaign, which means smart phone and iPad users with household incomes of $135,000 and above in key markets along the U.S. east coast are currently getting bombarded with banner ads like the one's you see above. Not seeing the ads, iPhone user? Then clearly you're not making enough money! That, or you don't live in Boston or New York City, two major feeder markets with two-hour flights to Bermuda, which are currently getting the banners. The ads lead to landing pages that provide further information about the island, widgets to connect via Twitter or Facebook and links available at GoToBermuda.com, but unfortunately not to a mobile-optimized site—a real shame and in my opinion, a huge opportunity squandered. Clearly the mobile ad campaign is a step in the right direction for a destination in dire need of tourist dollars—after all, who isn't using their smart phone for just about everything these days?—but if the Department of Tourism spends big bucks on cheeky iPhone banner ads, then those ads should without a doubt take its target audience to a place where potential travelers can spend real tourist dollars in return. And that's my two cents for today.