Turneffe Island Resort: PR and Social for a Private Island Paradise

Campaign Highlights

Since signing on with Caster in 2017, Turneffe Island Resort has successfully hosted ten media review trips consistently targeting the island’s top target publications including Travel + Leisure, Coastal Living, Conde Nast Traveler, Forbes, Departures Magazine, and others.

In 2018, Turneffe Island Resort experienced a record-breaking year in terms of bookings and exceeded their 2018 goals a full quarter before the end of the year.

Within the first year of the program, Caster coordinated four media review trips to the island, an additional four the following year, and remain on track to send an additional four media outlets to the island in 2019.

The Challenge

Operating with a lean, dedicated staff, Turneffe Island Resort had never deployed a traditional PR program prior to introduction to Caster Communications. Before becoming a client, the majority of the marketing budget for the resort was spent on traditional advertising programs with travel and scuba diving publications and a heavy focus and spend on Google Ad Words. In 2017, armed with a completely revamped website and resort-wide renovation project complete, the resort decided it was high time for a change in tactics and desired to elevate their social media presence and make Turneffe Island Resort a known name in adventure travel to destination review publications and press.

Having been in business for years as a diver’s dream destination given the resorts proximity to the Great Blue Hole, and haven for anglers as one of the few places on Earth where fly-fish enthusiasts can chase down their dream of reeling in a ‘Grand Slam’ Turneffe Island Resort had powerful word of mouth and exceptional guest experience in their favor. While this resulted in high return guest numbers, in 2017, the resort wanted to make their name known to new audiences and potential guests who had never before considered traveling to Belize for an adventure vacation or considered them as a bucket-list destination.

The Results

Since the start of the program, Caster has helped Turneffe Island Resort coordinate and host ten hosted media trips down to the resort for dedicated coverage and stories. Within the first year of the program, trips were coordinated with JetSet Magazine, The Flyfish Journal, Forbes Travel, and Conde Nast Traveler. In 2018, Caster coordinated review trips for additional publications that remained on Turneffe’s wish-list including Travel + Leisure, Departures, Travel Pulse, and Good Housekeeping. Now in their third year leveraging Caster Communications for PR and social media management, two more reviews have been coordinated with Travel + Leisure and Coastal Living with additional opportunities in development.

To supplement coverage beyond hosted trips and reviews, Caster’s pitching efforts have resulted in stories in top tier publications including Quartz, CNBC Travel, Bloomberg, and Men’s Journal that have not required travel. Many of these press wins have been secured by leveraging travel deals and promotion run by the island or by pitching developed thought-out story ideas to relevant press on an on-going basis.

As a major component of the Turneffe Island Resort account, social media has flourished under the guidance and control of Caster Communications. Since officially taking over the Instagram account, Turneffe Island Resort has experienced a 164% growth in Instagram followers. Since the start of the program, Caster’s social efforts on behalf of the island resort has resulted in 3 million impressions and in a social environment where engagement is king, Turneffe experienced a 23% increase in engagement in 2018 compared to the previous year.

With the program now in its third year, Turneffe Island Resort is seeing the benefits of a consistent PR and social media program. Through the implementation of an effective PR strategy, social media expertise and a flexible, constantly-evolving program, Caster helped this bucket list destination nestled in the atolls of the Caribbean achieve the attention, recognition, and love of the travel, luxury, lifestyle, and adventure press they deserve.