slavish'' to the airlines serving Bermuda.

Addressing a Hamilton Lions luncheon this week, he also knocked Tourism Minister the Hon. C.V. (Jim) Woolridge for not giving hotels enough tax breaks.

Mr. Allen was presenting the Progressive Labour Party's ideas "to enhance the lustre'' of the local Tourism industry.

The MP expressed disappointment in Mr. Woolridge's turning down an application renewal for the charter airline TNT, which had stepped in to serve Bermuda when the regular scheduled airlines made recessionary cuts in their service.

"I was very upset their application was not renewed'' he said, noting the Minister frowned upon charter flights out of gateways already served by established airlines.

"I tend to think the Government and the Tourism Minister are -- I hasten to say -- a little too slavish, or amenable to the scheduled airlines serving Bermuda.

"I believe in competition -- it's healthy and we should support it.'' He said an air charter programme should be aimed at encouraging an existing European scheduled carrier to initiate regular scheduled flights to Bermuda.

"If we want the market, we are the ones who have to prove the demand is there. The world does not owe us a living.'' Noting most of the major hotels had closed down their nightclub operations, Mr. Allen said: "A PLP Government would provide the appropriate tax incentives to hotels and others to employ more Bermudian entertainers and expand their night life programmes, and their incentives to assist small guest properties, which have been dying on the vine -- over a dozen have gone out of business in the last five years.'' Glencoe guest house was the most recent, he noted, leaving 43 workers unemployed.

Mr. Allen suggested fuel surcharge exemptions for hotels in the winter months.

When recession was already on the way, he claimed, "Government heaped punitive tax increases on the tourist industry, including the hotels, which unlike the exempted companies, were not even consulted, ranging from huge increases in the departure tax, which sent a most unfortunate signal to the overseas marketplace about Bermuda's expensiveness, to duty increases on everything from hotel diesel fuel and wines and spirits.'' It was the "nickel and diming to death'' of visitors with things such as exorbitant cocktail charges which "irritated'' them more than anything, he said.

Mr. Allen said Tourism should also give more help to small guest properties in promoting themselves more effectively and it should revamp its "staid and stuffy advertising campaign''.

A "long-standing plank'' in the PLP platform has been to establish a self-contained division in Tourism to work closely with the hotels in assisting the development of our meeting and incentive travel business -- not in just one overseas office.

Although Government had increased the number of cruise ships regularly serving Bermuda to five, with the new St. George's-only ship, there was room for one more, the PLP believed.

And there was still more Government could do for the Old Town.

Mr. Allen suggested the redevelopment of the Club Med property "under an organisation similar to Wedco. It could be a major hotel, apartment, entertainment and restaurant complex.'' There could be a changing-of-the-guard ceremony at one of St. George's forts, he said.

He suggested international trade shows should be held at the new hangar at the US Naval Air Station once forces pull out.

And he suggested to get a jump on eco-tourism, Bermuda fully convert Cooper's Island into a major new national park and bird sanctuary, "a goal some prominent environmentalists already support''.

Mr. David Alllen MP.