Bermuda's glitzy London party to promote the Island was money well spent as it should generate more visitors, Tourism Minister Renee Webb said yesterday.

She said she did not know the cost of last week's party - attended by celebrities such as Sir David Frost, Grace Jones and fashion designers Sadie Frost and Jemima French - but said it came from the budget given to UK marketing company Hills Balfour.

She said the company's performance was monitored in terms of how many visitors it delivered to the Island, which meant it was held accountable.

The party at the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Hall, was also part of a fundraiser for a breast cancer charity, so the Island didn't pick up all the tab.

The media event ran just before the Island's image was blitzed all over the windows of leading department store Selfridges during the cold British winter, an innovation that has attracted a lot of media coverage, said Ms Webb.

And Hills Balfour also took out adverts for Bermuda in the Daily Mail, other papers, and in Conde Nast Traveller.

"I think it is value for money. It's part of the budget for the UK agency. We give them a direction where we want to go and they decide how they can spend it," said Ms Webb.

"We made the decision in the last quarter not to do a lot of advertising because we didn't have the rooms available, although a lot of people said we should have.

"We have done a serious blitz now, also because people are booking a lot closer now to the time of their vacation.

"It has all went extremely well. We've got a lot of publicity in the British media as a result of the launch and the window display at Selfridges because of the fact it is not something that has been done before.

"All this will mean conversion in driving people to Bermuda and we definitely expect to see an increase this year from the UK in particular."