The Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority’s UK Office has won the bronze award in the highly competitive Chartered Institute of Marketing Travel Industry Group’s (CIMTIG) Travel Marketing Awards for the Best Tactical Campaign.

With a total of 1600 entries, the prestigious UK travel awards, held on March 12, 2018 recognises the most original, creative, innovative and best performing campaigns produced by tourist boards, travel companies and PR agencies. Antigua and Barbuda scooped the bronze award for the highly creative Antigua Beach Bar Trail campaign.

In 2016, the Tourism Authority launched the ‘Beach Bar Trail’ to help show visitors some of the best spots on the islands. From foodie gems to romantic hotspots, party bars to hidden hangouts that only the locals know about, the map was designed to encourage visitors to Antigua and Barbuda to explore the island – hopping from bar to bar and soaking up the best of Antiguan hospitality along the way.

Following the success of this launch, Antigua and Barbuda also partnered with Archer Street, a stylish bar in the heart of central London to further widen the understanding of Antigua’s incredible beach bar offering, with an Antiguan beach bar pop up throughout the summer of 2017. This stunning pop up bar welcomed UK consumer and trade media, tour operators and travel agents, and other industry leaders within the UK travel community to experience a slice of Antigua in the heart of London. Archer Street also welcomed around 80,000 visitors during this pop-up period, a record number for the popular bar.

The Tourism Authority also hosted UK press to follow the Beach Bar Trail for themselves; a trip that resulted in excellent media coverage across top tier national titles The Times, The Daily Mirror and The Evening Standard, as well as a raft of articles circulated in regional newspapers across the UK.

With these press trips, and other PR pitches, the Beach Bar Trail campaign resulted in 101 pieces of coverage with a PR value in excess of £300,000, and the tourist board’s nomination in this prestigious industry recognition.

Off the back of the campaign success, a second-year partnership with Archer Street is currently being implemented and the Tourism Authority is designing a series of new maps to complement the Beach Bar Trail.

Cherrie Osborne, director of tourism in the UK & Europe has said of the awards “It’s fantastic to have won bronze at the prestigious Travel Marketing Awards. The beach bar trail involved a multi-faceted and creative approach to raising awareness of Antigua’s amazing beachside offerings. The bronze award is a wonderful recognition of the combined efforts of the Antigua and Barbuda tourism board team both in the UK and on island.”