on tourism told members of the House: "Travelling all the time, living out of suitcases. (David Allen) is the most dedicated tourism minister we have ever had.'' And he said the job involved meeting people from overseas, therefore Mr. Allen had to travel overseas.

Shadow Minister for Youth and Sport Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said Government was spending more and more on tourism, but was seeing little return for its money.

And she said Government had to refocus its spending to ensure its tourism product was up to scratch.

She said people in the service industry in Bermuda had lost their passion for tourism and failed to recognise the importance of the industry.

The Opposition MP said she believed many people on the Island thought serving people was demeaning, but said it was quite the contrary.

Bermuda was simply not able to compete with other destinations because we did not give people value for money, good service, and good holiday memories.

However, she said it was not only people in the service industry who had to improve their attitudes -- she said it was for everyone in Bermuda.

Government backbencher Reginald Burrows said during the 1950s, Bermudians opted out of the hotel industry because there were so many "imported'' waiters and there seemed to be few promotional prospects.

Now it was time to attract people again, he said.

And he said the reason why it had taken Mr. Allen so long to draw up a tourism plan was because the industry was in a worse position than the UBP had claimed at the time of the last General Election.

But he said he believed Bermuda could compete and was now reversing the trend.

He said: "Having travelled through most of the islands in the Caribbean, I have never found hotels in Bermuda expensive. They are comparable.

"But the restaurant food in Bermuda is much higher than in other parts of the Caribbean.'' He also said more could be done to entice people to Bermuda in the off-season months, particularly golfers as the golf courses were in better condition then. But he said they had never been promoted properly.

Minister without Portfolio Randy Horton said the previous Government had to take much of the blame for allowing so many hotels to close and tourism to drift.

But he said this Government was not going to just put a band-aid on the problem -- it wanted to do it right.

He said he had travelled the world, and believed Bermuda needed to offer a first class service in order to compete.

He said: "We need people to be friendly under stress, who believe in immediacy and being able to deliver in a timely manner what the guests and co-workers want.

"We want people who can anticipate what the needs of the guests are. We want people to be friendly to unfriendlies. We want to be able to convert complaints into compliments.'' However, former PLP Cabinet Minister Arthur Hodgson threw an altogether different light on the debate when he asked what tourism actually did for the Bermudian man in the street.

He said he doubted whether a new hotel on the Island would put extra cash in the bank accounts of locals.

And he said if the members in the House could not agree on the solutions for tourism, members of the community were probably just as divided.

He said many years ago, when Bermuda was largely a farming country, people wanted to work in the hotel industry because they could wear clean clothes and work fewer hours. It was a step up.

However, he said now young people did not know what it was to wear anything but clean clothes, and tourism was no longer a step up.

And he accused the UBP of trying to keep locals out of the hotel business in the 1960s, by licensing beds to protect those people already in the industry and preventing new people from entering it.

The MP said the taxpayer was helping to pay the Government concessions offered to hotels, but was seeing nothing in return.

And he said as the taxpayer would be behind any new multi-million dollar hotel projects contracted by Government "the man around the corner should be carrying a share certificate''.

But he also said Bermuda should be mindful of sustainable development and should not overdevelop for the sake of it.

He said: "A Bermudian in this country, where we are running an industry, should be better off as a result of that industry than if it was not there.

"But no one has told me how Jeremiah Johnson, of Parsons Road, will be better off if we have more beds in a hotel. He already has a job.'' And he added: "We do not have to overdevelop. Development does not have to be our God. More numbers does not necessarily mean more money for Bermudians.'' And he said he wanted to see Bermuda come to a decision on how many hotels it would allow to be developed.

And he warned against allowing too many foreigners onto the Island.

He said a friend of his had told him that the US was a land of immigrants and that the immigrants had developed the land.

However, he added: "The natives of that land were wiped out in the process.'' Shadow Education Minister, Tim Smith said Government had put the "cart before the horse'' as Government had spent too much money promoting tourism without addressing the local industry.

Mr. Smith also said the previous Government had been working on a plan to revitalise tourism, and they had left it on his desk on November 8, 1998.

He said it was a sad reality that two and a half years the minister is now attaching some of the parts of this plan into his own.

Mr. Smith also criticised Government for not giving the Visitor Industry Partnership (VIP) the resources they deserve.

He said: "The VIP represents a unique opportunity for the private/public sectors to link to ensure Bermudians work together to see the visitor industry revitalised.'' Government backbencher Wayne Perinchief also spoke on the matter and said tourism had given way to international business as the Island's main business.

He said a shift back to tourism was occurring and that people were taking the skills learned in international business, and applying them to tourism.

He also said tourism was customer driven and the Island must deliver what the customer wants.

And he said the Alliance would provide what the customer wants in Bermuda.

Shadow Environment Minister, Gary Pitman spoke about the loss of Bermuda's entertainment industry and asked where the leadership was in Government.

He said Government promised a 100-day rescue mission, and that after 900 days it had not materialised, and the industry was at a 30-year low.

Mr. Pitman also asked where the promised tax review was, and said the recent tax changes would negatively affect tourism.

He said that increases on alcohol and cigars spelt trouble for the tourism industry.