The Tribune

By LINDSAY THOMPSON

Bahamas Information Services

THE Ministry of Tourism has been able to galvanise all of its departments and partners to work in synergy to host NBA champions Miami Heat for their pre-season training camp at Atlantis.

Greg Rolle, director of sports tourism, explained how the various areas came together to pull off the event, a first time for the Bahamas.

“When people work in silence, no one benefits. We want the experts to do their jobs. So the minister put together a ground team that includes all departments and other areas in government as a team to showcase the Bahamas at its best,” he said.

The areas involved were the Sports Tourism Department, the Minister’s Office, Communications, IT Department, the Films Commission, Bahamas Information Services, Industry Training, and Groups, which also comprised logistic support personnel and other staff.

“One of the things that the minister of tourism has given me is the directive to bring in high-end tourists to the country. And we start the process of basically showing the world that we want to take the Bahamas global in the sports tourist industry,” he said.

Normally, the focal point was basically on tourism but “we take the idea of what sports tourism brings to the country and it is just fantastic.”

He said although the economic value is great, there is a social component and the Ministry of Tourism wants to focus on the elite tournaments and games and that is going to translate into bringing in smaller events here.

“Think about the Miami Heat comes here, they now have the reach that takes the Bahamas global (in terms of sports tourism). Everyone is going to know about The Bahamas,” he said.

According to Mr Rolle, the Ministry of Tourism gave an invitation to anyone who wants to bring their events to the islands. And after due diligence, the event with The Miami Heat came about.

“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,” Mr 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.

In terms of inviting future teams in a similar fashion, Mr Rolle said one of the things tourism wants to do is build a good r�sum� and send it out to anyone who wants to come here.

“What is so significant about this event is we have an opportunity to show the world that the Bahamas can multitask. We have two courts side-by-side in the ballroom. It’s not an arena. It’s just to show the versatility that this country, the Bahamas can put together once we work together as a team.”

The Ministry of Tourism spends an estimated $25 million in advertising the country around the world. “But with the Miami Heat training camp that was done with zero dollars,” Mr Rolle said.

Geneva Cooper, senior director of Global Communication, noted that the Bahamas got “great coverage” prior to the arrival of the Miami Heat team.

“We’ve had quite a number of international media on the island to cover the event and they have all been very pleased for what we have done to accommodate them and of course we’ve had the social media channels buzzing.”

The ministry has a team at the Bahamas Tourist Office in Plantation, Florida as well as public relations agencies assisting in monitoring the social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.

John Nixon, director of Safety and Security, said the security aspect was in collaboration with the Royal Bahamas Police Force and Atlantis security in making preparations from the airport, through the town and to Atlantis.

“It took a lot of planning with the police force and Atlantis – we are working 24 hours around the clock. And as far as what we have in place it’s the best in the world right now,” Mr Nixon said.