Billionaire New York Mayor and Bermuda resident Michael Bloomberg gave the Island and its people an impromptu plug when he spoke on radio about tourism.

The Tuckers Town home-owner, who regularly gets to the Island for weekend breaks, said Bermudians were nice people, and said he had never met one person who had not made him feel welcome.

During a live commercial break on his weekly radio spot on WABC/770 AM, he said: "I love Bermuda.

"The people are nice. I have never met one Bermudian who didn't make you feel welcome."

During a commercial break in his weekly interview and call-in show with Bloomberg, the show's presenter John Gambling read an ad for a June cruise he planned to take to Bermuda and Virginia.

Departing from the text, Mr. Gambling asked Mr. Bloomberg: "You have a fondness for Bermuda?" And the media mogul replied: "Absolutely. They like tourists. They like to meet new people; it's safe. It's great!"

A Bloomberg spokesman later said: "The endorsement was "unplanned and part of their WABC's commercial section".

The previous day Mr. Bloomberg had been speaking about ways in which New York could promote itself better on a world-wide scale.

But an ABC official said the Bermuda plug was not supposed to happen.

Programme producer Aric Schmidt said he and the mayoral aides had "an implicit agreement that the mayor would not appear in any commercials or live reads". "So the onus is on myself and John Gambling, as far as bringing him into a commercial setting. You can expect not to hear him (Bloomberg) do commercials from now on."