The Tourism Ministry has acted quickly to clarify where it stands regarding appointing a UK public relations firm to help promote the Island.

It follows concerns expressed by a Bermuda PR agency that it would be better for a UK public relations company contracted to promote Bermuda in Britain to do so in joint partnership with a Bermuda-based agency.

It has been reported in a UK trade magazine PR Week that Bermuda Tourist Board has hired the company Rooster to ?re-establish the Island as a ?glamour destination? for British tourists?.

The tourist board has asked the company to give Bermuda its ?starry? image that it enjoyed in the 1980s and also to dispel the belief that Bermuda is in the Caribbean. The Department of Tourism, in a further statement, said it was in a transition stage regarding its UK advertising and Rooster was being employed to do some public relations projects. The statement continued: ?The Department is currently reviewing its communications needs in the UK and will make a decision with regard to agency representation in due course.?

When news of the Rooster deal appeared, Elizabeth Tee, managing director of Troncossi Public Relations, said she believed it would be more productive if the contract had linked up a UK agency with a Bermuda-based agency to ensure more accurate knowledge was exchanged to travel writers and media people brought to the Island to learn about and promote Bermuda to their home audience.

She said: ?I have met and spoken with several PRs who the Ministry of Tourism has hired in the past and, in my experience, I find that they don?t know much about Bermuda.

?In October 2004, one of the UK PR team members who led a UK press trip that month happened to mention that she didn?t know much about Bermuda although said her trip would be a good opportunity to learn about it.?

And as another example an American PR company had tried to ?sell-in? the story of the Gombeys to journalists by saying they were part of the Bermuda Festival held in January and February.

Ms Tee said: ?It is important to bring journalists to Bermuda, however, we need someone who is knowledgeable about the Island to brief them and I think a partnership with a Bermuda PR firm could assist greatly in this situation.

?We don?t want to miss the opportunity for Bermuda. Bermudians can ?sell? the Island better because we know it and it would be more cost effective than flying out someone from the UK who may know very little about the Island.? She added that she hoped there would soon be a forum allowing the public to hear what Rooster intends to do for Bermuda.