Government's tourism promotional campaign for the winter months came under immediate attack from Shadow Tourism Minister David Allen yesterday.

Mr. Allen described the Country Club initiative -- aimed at boosting tourism during the off season -- as having negative connotations that had failed before and would fail again.

And he personally attacked Tourism Minister David Dodwell for failing to come up with a new approach, describing the Minister as "off base''.

"The idea of a country club is going to have negative connotations to our overseas visitors,'' Mr. Allen said.

"It will give out a message of restricted access. Unfortunately Bermuda has a history of this and certain ethnic groups feel that they are not welcome here.

Things have changed but we should be trying to shed this image.

"It's not something that we should be trying to revive and it's not new. It shows that David Dodwell is not coming up with any fresh ideas -- he will retread an old image. In the early 1980s, (former Tourism Minister) Jim Woolridge floated the idea of Bermuda being a country club in the mid Atlantic and I know that we in the PLP expressed our concerns about it then. It was eventually dropped and I don't think it's a button we should be pressing.

"We have a staid, stuffy and "WASPish'' image and this is just reinforcing that. It's out of date, it's offensive to Bermudians and it's certainly offensive to ethnic minorities in the US. The Minister has said that we need to open up the Afro American market but this is not the way to do it.

"About 18 months or so ago I was chatting to an Afro American travel agent and he said that black Americans still didn't feel welcome here -- it was a hard sell because they were more interested in going to Jamaica or the Bahamas because they felt more welcome there.

"That may be unfair with the Bermuda of today because Bermuda has changed.

But while we are trying to live down this negative part of our past the Minister is off base in trying to revive it.

"I cannot say that the PLP will continue with this slogan. We will be pushing for more cultural tourism. Places like the Maritime Museum should be harnessed as well as the Bio Station and the Underwater Institute. We should be promoting ecological tourism with our nature sanctuaries as well as those sports such as golf and tennis.'' When contacted last night Mr. Dodwell said he would prefer to respond to the "hasty, uninformed and inappropriate remarks from Mr. Allen'' today.