Tourism & Transportation Minister Dr. Ewart Brown is going back to school this morning ? making the first of 34 visits to every primary and middle school on the Island to ?light the fire? with the Tourism in Schools programme.

?Young people are the future of tourism,? he said yesterday, ?and there can be no greater undertaking than the investment in our children.?

With that in mind, he called on Bermudians to ?stop being depressed about tourism ... We are the heart and soul of this industry.?

The programme, in addition to the Tourism component already within the public schools curriculum ? a component which Dr. Brown admitted he wants to strengthen ? will take place over the next four months. Every Monday and Friday will find the Minister, along with members of the industry, visiting every one of the Island?s public and private primary and middle schools ?with the sole mission of educating our youth about the importance of their involvement in Bermuda?s tourism industry?.

He begins at 9 a.m. this morning at Whitney Institute. ?We need to be vigilant about it if we are to find our next Bermudian food and beverage directors, Bermudian accountants, Bermudian engineers, Bermudian general managers, and more importantly, our next Bermudian hotel owners.

?We also realise that to fulfil this goal our young Bermudians must be fully engaged. This means getting them involved from the ground up, at the earliest opportunity.?

Aware that the programme must be targeted and precise to capture the interest of Bermuda?s schoolchildren, Dr. Brown said it will be interactive ? ?full of high energy and excitement?.

Students will learn about the new Pop-By initiative and will be encouraged to take part in the national tourism student debate, due to take place in June.

?The debate is an integral part of the Tourism in Schools programme. The format will be a series of regional debates ? East, West and Central ? with the winner of each regional going on to the final.

?Ultimately the overall winner will be named Junior Tourism Student Minister and he or she will go on to represent Bermuda at the Caribbean Tourism Organisation Annual Conference in October of this year.?

Tourism is in the hands of Bermudians, he said. ?If we don?t do it as Bermudians then we have no one to blame. ?No one sells our country like us... We?re going to make some changes this summer that I think will convince the nay-sayers that we?re on a new track and we?re moving forward.?

It was Bermudians who made tourism such a wonderful thing in Bermuda, and it will be Bermudians who revive it, he said.

?It won?t take Bermudians long. Unless I have not figured out something, I still believe that there is something inside Bermudians that makes us special hosts and hostesses.

?I think we just need to light the fire again and Bermudians will be right back on track ? but they have to be front and centre.?

For that reason, the Department was calling on everyone with an idea to benefit the industry ? whether they had been excluded in the past or not ? to come forward.

?We are saying to people, you have to believe us. You?re going to be able to play. Come forward and we will see to it that you are not automatically excluded. That?s where we?re going.?

Dr. Brown also had high words of praise for staff at the Department of Tourism. ?We are working from the inside out ? we promised we would do that. They?re just beginning. They have so much potential, it?s unbelievable, and they love to work hard... That?s one thing I?ve found out about the people in Tourism. They don?t watch the clock.?

The Island is still special in spite of the fact that it is not perfect, he said. ?We don?t have to be perfect to be wonderful. There?s not a tourism destination on the planet that doesn?t have something that?s not quite right.

?So I want Bermudians to stop feeling depressed about tourism because there was a purse snatching three months ago. We don?t want crime to interfere with the work we are doing, but we?re going to persist in spite of it, that?s what I want to get clear.

?Banks don?t close because it rains. We?re open for business. When people say Bermuda is boring, I take it personally. I don?t think my country is boring.?