The Royal Gazette's Henry Adderley this week sat down with Tourism Minister David Dodwell to talk about the `Let Yourself Go' advertising campaign and what Mr. Dodwell wanted to accomplish in the future. This is the first of a three-part series of his interview with the Minister.

*** A study to gauge the effectiveness of Bermuda's new tourism campaign in the US has found that it is hitting home.

Tourism Minister David Dodwell told The Royal Gazette : "It is reaching its intended audience -- especially in the Mid-Atlantic area -- and communicating positive impressions of the Island and intriguing some prospects to think about a visit to Bermuda in the next couple of years.

"Further, no deterioration has occurred in the image of Bermuda created by earlier advertising.'' Mr. Dodwell said the independent firm of Davidson-Peterson Associates, Inc.

had been commissioned by the department to undertake a continuing study to track the effectiveness of Bermuda's advertising and communications programme in the US.

The benchmark study was done in 1994 and the first year of tracking in 1995 measured the impact of the sixth year of the Bermuda Shorts campaign.

Mr. Dodwell said he took the view that measuring the effectiveness of an advertising campaign could not be done by simply looking at the number of visitor arrivals.

"There are too many other factors involved,'' he said.

DDB Needham were brought in to develop the new campaign in 1995.

The result was "Let Yourself Go'' which was designed "to modify the image of Bermuda, suggesting it as an appropriate destination for active, romantic, younger vacationers'' in an attempt to replace Bermuda's long time repeat visitors.

"It was not intended to ignore repeaters but they did not need the same message,'' added Mr. Dodwell.

He said the new campaign's target were those people in the key markets of New England and the Mid-Atlantic states who had never been to Bermuda.

Respondents to "the communications effectiveness study'' were chosen from people living in those states -- plus Atlanta and Chicago -- whose households had total annual incomes of $50,000 or more and who took a vacation by air in the past two years to do something else beside visit friends or relatives.

A total of 2,150 telephone interviews were conducted between May 6 and September 5 after the campaign had been running from one to four months.

The study found people's awareness of Bermuda as a destination for the four vacation types of beach, vacation, active and rest and recuperation maintained previous levels.

And as many prospective visitors were aware of the Island as had been in previous years.

But there were also some increases of awareness in certain areas with the new campaign, added Mr. Dodwell.

"In New England, Bermuda is mentioned more often in 1996 than previously as a destination for an active vacation.

"Total advertising awareness for Bermuda is significantly higher in the Mid-Atlantic area in 1996 than it was in 1995. Those in the Mid-Atlantic area report more frequent seeing and hearing of the advertising as well.'' He added that it was important to realise that the new campaign was not comprised solely of television advertisements but also included newspapers, consumer magazines, public relations and direct mail.

And Mr. Dodwell added that there was some movement amongst people who had not visited the Island with more of them being aware that Bermuda is a destination which can offer the four different vacation scenarios.

"The messages targeted to non-visitors seem to be reaching those non-visitors.'' "More importantly,'' he continued, "what the new campaign has accomplished is to increase the proportion who say they will likely visit Bermuda in the next two years.'' He said: "Bermuda is a place to relax and relieve stress, on beautiful, clean beaches at resort hotels with all the amenities, in a safe atmosphere which is easy to get to.'' Not including the resort hotels particularly, he continued, the others were the four hallmarks of the Island's previous success in tourism.

Safety particularly ranked high in most tourism studies as an important factor in people's decisions on where to visit, added Mr. Dodwell.

He said recent incidents such as the murder of Canadian teenager Rebecca Middleton had done little to affect Bermuda's image of a safe destination.

And these images of Bermuda identified in previous surveys continued to describe the Island to prospective visitors today.

Mr. Dodwell said he wanted the campaign to challenge the community to evolve the Island's product so "Let Yourself Go'' would not misrepresent Bermuda.

It was designed to change people' perceptions and get the Island's new themes of romance and fun "resonating'' while its four main attributes remained intact.

Mr. Dodwell said this had been accomplished as the survey had shown the new image dimensions of the Island being both the "perfect place for a romantic getaway'' and "a fun place to go'' were acknowledged by half the prospective visitors as descriptive of Bermuda.