The Tribune

By D’Arcy Rahming

The success at the Olympics has caused many to turn an eye towards sport as a potential revenue generator for the Bahamas. The primary question being asked is: “What is an Olympic gold medal worth to a country like the Bahamas?” Ask 10 experts and you’ll get 10 different answers. The actual dollar figure is difficult to quantify, and one of the reasons is that there is no marketing system in place to help us quantify its value.

Our athletes inspired us all with their efforts. But how does that translate to cash? Winning the medal means that millions, maybe billions, of people see and hear of your country and its accomplishments, and hear your national anthem played. While being a moment of immense pride, will that be enough to cause thousands of tourists to come flocking to our islands because of a fleeting moment of glory seen on television? I don’t think so.

But the moment is not really so fleeting. With social media, that event was replayed over thousands of Facebook pages, as Bahamians and friends of Bahamians expressed their pride. This informal referral system means that millions more saw this event through personal contact from one of their friends. I am sure it made them feel more warmly towards the Bahamas, and then think of visiting or doing business with us.

Hopefully that may have triggered some vacation desires, which translate into actual dollars being spent. We need to move beyond hope and into systematic action. This Facebook posting is spontaneous and random with no specific call to action. Might I suggest that someone in the tourism industry sponsor a Facebook contest giveaway that encourages sharing of the message, and ties back to bringing people to these shore? For example, a hotel could offer discounts to anyone from abroad who responds to a trivia question about the athletes, and a free dinner to the Bahamian who referred them.

Actually, I think a major missing piece is based on the fact that behind every elite level athlete there are sometimes hundreds of junior athletes aspiring to be like them. This is where I believe an opportunity has not yet been fully developed. Take, for example, Judo. International competition begins at age 11. So there are three junior tournaments in the Pan American region consisting of some 25 countries active in the sport.

If the Bahamas were able to host one of these tournaments a year we would attract 25 teams, or about 200 athletes, their coaches and their families. Minimum 500 people per event. If you multiply this effort across the various sporting disciplines, targeting family-oriented junior tournaments, we would be able to develop a repeatable marketing success system.

NB: D’Arcy Rahming holds a Masters of Management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A lecturer at the College of the Bahamas, Mr Rahming has clients in general insurance, retail, the health and medical fields, sports federations and financial services. To receive his marketing newsletter FREE go to http://DArcyRahming.com or contact him directly at darcyrahmingsr@gmail.com