The solution to Bermuda?s tourism woes lies not just in Government but in the entire community, Senators agreed yesterday.

For their part, PLP Senator Walter Roban said, Government is working to upgrade the Island?s tourism product and change the Bermudian perception of jobs in the visitor industry.

However, the Opposition declared Government had but one role in Tourism, and that was to ?get out of the way? ? take the politics out of Tourism and implement a Tourism Authority.

Detailing radical shifts in the Department?s budget, Sen. Roban said the move to satellite-based offices in North America, with just one central sales office in New York City, had freed up some $2.6 million for the Department to use in other areas such as product development.

The offices in Boston and Canada will close effective March 31, Sen. Roban said, and those agents will work in the field supported by the sales staff in New York. The New York office is to become the global hub for Bermuda tourism sales administration.

Daily British Airways flights to London are in the works as the Ministry develops a relationship with British Airways Vacations, Sen. Roban said, while the Ministry continues to target flights to Italy in 2006 in hopes of capitalising on the weak US dollar and comparatively stronger Euro/pound.

At home, the Ministry is focusing on product development. An Island-wide survey of all attractions in Bermuda commissioned by the Ministry shows that much of the product needs upgrading, and most of the funds freed by the creation of satellite offices will target such product development ? for example, $400,000 has been set aside for the Entertainment Development Fund.

Beaches especially were targeted as potential hotspots: ?We have to start with the simple pleasure of having a drink at the beach.? At home, the Ministry plans to implement an industry service training programme and set service standards.

Sen. Roban also announced that as part of an initiative targeting morale at the Department itself, new offices for the Department are in the Ministry?s sights. ?ACE and XL didn?t skimp on their headquarters,? he said. ?When the time comes, while the scale won?t be the same, neither should we minimise comfort ? but that will come later.?

However, Shadow Tourism Minister Kim Swan leapt on Sen. Roban?s choice of words, noting that ACE and XL are businesses which make decisions based on profits ? and not on public perception.

Tourism developed before party politics, he said, and in 1998 the then-Minister of Tourism David Dodwell was already pushing for a Tourism Authority. ?We in the UBP and in the PLP have tried, but the decline in tourism is ongoing ... We need to put the industry back in the hands of those that run it.

?We have to save civil servants from the politics of the day ... How much longer can we endure the tourism merry-go-round??

However, yesterday afternoon Tourism Minister Ewart Brown said Government was not yet convinced that the ?sub-optimal performance in Tourism is rooted purely in the absence of a Tourism Authority?.

?Taking the politics out of Tourism is like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube,? he added.

Accusing Government of ?dismissing? the much-touted Elliot Ettenberg report, which former Tourism Minister Renee Webb had embraced and was implementing when she resigned from Cabinet, Sen. Swan said the numbers speak for themselves. ?We need a more effective spending strategy.?

Calling for increased air service in winter months, Sen. Swan said the Island needed either a major upgrade to its golf courses or a new world-class course at Morgan?s Point. Government Sen. Reg Burrows echoed the need to upgrade the golf product.

Independent Sen. Carol Ann Bassett said the buck does stop with Government ? however she added that ?politicians will come and politicians will go. I am urging our country as a whole to become part of the solution.?

The community?s psyche has become one of entitlement, she added. ?It has to be changed or future generations of Bermudians will look back at us and say, ?What the heck were they thinking?.?

The Island has become complacent because international business saved the economy when tourism began to spiral downwards, she said. ?But one day life will hand this country a bill and we better be ready to pay.?

All the blame cannot be placed with Government, she said, citing the demise of Trimingham?s as an example. ?We are not taking responsibility, us as a community, for the part we played.?

UBP Sen. Bob Richards agreed that the Department of Tourism cannot be made the scapegoat. ?It?s like a marketing manager being held responsible for an entire company ? it?s a bit unfair.?

A Tourism Authority, he maintained, would get all the players in one place and able to co-ordinate better.

Independent Sen. Walwyn Hughes agreed with Sen. Bassett and Sen. Swan that it was ?enough of the blame game?. ?Yes, a community effort is needed,? he said.