The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas took centre stage at the American Airlines Arena in a major sports tourism campaign.

For the third consecutive year, the Bahamas was featured during a marquee game for the Miami Heat as the partnership between the Ministry of Tourism and the NBA franchise continues to develop.

The Heat went on to defeat the New Orleans Pelicans 120-112 to improve to 33-35 and move into a tie with the Detroit Pistons for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Several promotions and memorabilia highlighted the partnership over the course of the night, highlighted by the Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival dancers, who combined with the Heat dancers for a special performance at halftime.

In addition to the annual event, the Bahamas has also hosted the Miami Heat to training camp twice within the last four years.

Chris Maragno, vice president of corporate partnerships for the Heat, said the mutually beneficial partnership between the Ministry of Tourism and the franchise continues to pay dividends.

“The relationship continues to get stronger every year. Our goal is to continue to build on that, continue with training camp, continue to do more with Junkanoo and other things throughout the arena,” he said.

“We really want to make everyone in the Bahamas a Heat fan. We are so close, we are neighbours, we believe so strongly in being good neighbours and we believe in doing the right thing by those neighbours. We are very proud and very excited to continue to enjoy this partnership with the Bahamas. The Ministry has been nothing but professional to work with. They have a great vision for attracting more people from Miami, more people from Florida to the Bahamas and we are proud to be a part of that. We are committed to bringing more tourism and more Heat fans to the Bahamas.”

Maragno has seen his role with The HEAT Group grow since first joining the company in 1996. He is entering his 20th season overall and his 11th full season as vice president. He oversees the corporate partnership department where he is responsible for HEAT Group corporate partnership programmes, advertising sales and sponsor services.

Alonzo Mourning, former Heat centre and now the vice president of player operations, welcomed the Bahamian delegation.

The Bahamas hosted a promotional kiosk at the 100 level of the arena with giveaways which included t-shirts, cheering fans, other “Islands of the Bahamas” paraphernalia and the logo on the cover of the gameday programme.

Other promotional features included a “look-live” featuring the Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival dancers, a t-shirt toss throughout the arena, takeover banners shown on the Heat.com homepage.

Native Bahamian music also blared from speakers in the arena during timeouts, including tracks from Bodine, D-Mac and Julien Believe.

Greg Rolle, the senior director of sales and marketing for sports tourism, said it is imperative for the ministry to use iconic teams of South Florida to dominate the area.

“The Minister had a vision of moving sports tourism to the next level. Right now in the marketplace people recognise the Bahamas as the elite sports tourism destination in this hemisphere. What we have done is we have booked these iconic events. We have created the Bahamas the exposure we needed to sell the destination, now we will combine that with our sales department to get heads in beds.

“We are now looking at expansion for other events like bowling and billiards,” he said. “Florida is our major market so we need to own and dominate Florida. We invested with the Miami Dolphins and Miami Heat initially. Now half of the NBA is knocking on our door trying to work with us. The Bahamas has a dominant brand that is elite and it adds to what other destinations have to offer. We are light years of where we were when this partnership started. We started the process of basically showing the world that we want to take the Bahamas global in the sports tourist industry.”

Rolle added that although the economic value from the Miami Heat’s visit was great, there is a social component and the Ministry of Tourism wants to focus on the elite tournaments and games and that are going to translate into bringing smaller events here.

“The Bahamas has been working with the Miami Heat in terms of trying to get them to come to the Bahamas. When you look at it, the Bahamas is only 46 miles off the Florida coast. No better neighbour the Bahamas could be than to bring the Miami Heat to the Bahamas.

“We did that by basically reaching out to them and said we would like to be your partner in terms of sports,” Rolle said. “We got together and created a comprehensive plan that shows two things; one, co-branding, and two, business development. We want Miami Heat to drive their fan base to the destination.”