By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor
nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
The ‘Battle 4 Atlantis’ basketball tournament generated more than $102 million worth of ‘free publicity’ for both the resort and wider Bahamas, its top executive yesterday revealing this was a 165.8 per cent year-over-year improvement.
George Markantonis, Brookfield Hospitality’s president and managing director, told Tribune Business the dollar figure was what Atlantis would have had to spend on marketing/publicity had it not been for the tournament’s TV coverage.
Disclosing the findings of a report that showed just how valuable the NCAA basketball event is to both Atlantis and the wider Bahamian tourism industry, Mr Markantonis said ticket sales for the tournament also hit a new high.
“Battle 4 Atlantis generated 4,500 room nights for Atlantis, and we sold in excess of 30,000 tickets to all the games, which was a new record,” Mr Markantonis told Tribune Business.
Acknowledging that the increased ticket sales were partly a function of a larger arena, he added: “Ticket sales were up 27 per cent from the previous year.”
The real boost for Atlantis and, by extension, the Bahamas and its tourism product comes again from the value of ESPN’s TV broadcasts and associated media coverage, all of which increase awareness of this nation and what it has to offer in its core US markets.
“Media impressions were up 31 per cent year-over-year, and the advertising and publicity value was up 165.8 per cent,” Mr Markantonis confirmed to Tribune Business.
Together, these two factors were valued at more than $102 million, and Atlantis’s top executive said the benefits from receiving this ‘for free’ accrued not just to the resort but the wider Bahamas, too.
“That’s what we would have had to spend to get the same coverage to the audience watching on ESPN,” Mr Markantonis said.
“Those are the key metrics. Those are the big ones. I think we’re delighted. We were able to get interest from ESPN to take over the tournament. It is a first-rate channel, and contributed highly to the visibility of this tournament.
“We expect similar results going forward with ESPN in future tournaments. The key for us is the publicity value, which we hope serves us well for the next year going forward until he next ‘Battle 4 Atlantis’.
The tournament has effectively become the top pre-season event for US collegiate basketball, with the calibre of teams improving year after year.
Held over the Thanksgiving period, it helps to boost Atlantis’s occupancies over that US holiday period to 100 per cent, and has become a key component of the resort’s strategy to use ‘special events’ to drive visitor demand and rates.
The ‘Battle 4 Atlantis’ is also a ‘pioneer’ in developing the Bahamas as a sports tourism destination, and has helped the resort and wider country to foster further NCAA links.
“Battle 4 Atlantis is synonymous with the Bahamas, and during many of the games, not only did Atlantis advertise but so did the Nassau/Paradise Island Promotions Board,” Mr Markantonis told Tribune Business.”
This, he suggested, enabled the Bahamas to “maximise” publicity for its amenities and attractions, adding: “We hope they appealed to future tourists.
“At half-team and stoppage time, many of our leadership team were interviewed on TV and able to describe the amenities Nassau, the Bahamas and Atlantis, specifically, can offer to new and returning guests.”
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