Cacique Award Winner Julien Lajournade joins Bahamas High Commissioner H.E Ed Bethel, Area Manager France Karin Malett-Gautier and Director of Europe Anthony Stuart at the opening of The Bahamas Pop Up Store in Paris.
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The Ministry of Tourism
continued to make a lasting imprint in Europe this month as officials designed
and operated the first ever tourism pop-up store in Paris, France.
The store at 14/16 Rue Jean Jacques
Rousseau Paris
was opened from March 18-22 in a very
trendy part of the city.
Pop-up stores are very
popular with fashion labels and officials are hoping to mirror that success.
The store was used to push
The Bahamas in the markets for wedding and romance, meetings, incentives and
group businesses, families and tours.
Tour operators, the media and
travel agents were among the hundreds who visited the store.
Ministry of Tourism Regional
Manager Karin Mallet-Gautier said the idea is force The Bahamas in the minds of
potential visitors.
“We wanted to have more
visibility and a different way to communicate about The Islands of The Bahamas.
The purpose of this is to recreate the Bahamian ambiance so that people will
see the variety and enjoy our music and see the festivities and events around the
islands. We speak about all that to our visitors and consumers,” she said.
“We are the first to do
something like this in tourism. I am very proud and this is only the first.”
Parisian journalists, bloggers, travel partners and prospective visitors had the opportunity to pop on in at 14/16 Rue Jean Jacques Rousseau Paris 75001 to experience The Islands Of The Bahamas.
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At each night of the pop-up
store, customers visited The Bahamas through 3D glasses and tasted The Bahamas
through dishes made with Bahamian ingredients.
Paris-Bahamas, a cosmetics
company, was also a part of the pop-up store.
The company’s cosmetics and
perfumes are made with 100 per cent Bahamian ingredients like sea grapes,
Bahamian rum, poinciana seeds and other products.
Cacique Award Winner Julien Lajournade joins Bahamas High Commissioner H.E Ed Bethel, Area Manager France Karin Malett-Gautier and Director of Europe Anthony Stuart at the opening of The Bahamas Pop Up Store in Paris.
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Director of Europe Anthony
Stuart said the ministry decided to create the pop-up store during March
because it is the busiest season for summer booking.
“What we did is take over a
gallery that is in one of the most trendiest places in Paris and we’ve created
a Bahamas experience. On the first night, we had about 50 journalists and
bloggers and they learnt more about The Bahamas,” he said.
“It created a lot of buzz. It
was something different. The Bahamas is on people’s minds. Europeans want to
know all about The Islands of The Bahamas. Many of them book for 14 days and
some for as many as 21 days to experience what the different islands are known
for.”
Mr. Stuart said the store may
have been the first, but it would not be the last.
“We are now looking at how we
can take this to other places in France, London, Germany and Italy where we
have other offices. We want to do something different, unique and most of all
do something that is going to create bookings to The Bahamas and increase the
visitor count from Europe to the Islands of The Bahamas,” he said.