Business leaders have had to revert to new marketing schemes to jog the recession-minded consumer into the new economic reality. One interesting plan was mounted by Continental Motors last week when they invited a number of people to an open-air reception at the Regency Terrace of the Princess Hotel to the launch of the new line of Peugeot cars.

Manager, Mr. Jeff Stirling, said that the response was much better than anticipated. And he is glad for that, because the company took the unusual step of having to fly two of their top of the line models in on British Airways, when shipping arrangements fell through.

The cars, Peugeot Cabriolet 306 convertibles, complete with an electronic hydraulic hood, were the toast of the reception.

"Quite a few people who had attended the reception have stopped by our show room since that evening to get additional information,'' said Mr. Stirling.

"A lot of people came for a second look. But there were also people who had heard about the cars from those who had attended the reception.

"The reception was definitely a success and was something that Peugeot had been encouraging our company to do. In fact, they have been encouraging all of their distributors around the world to take this same approach, and they help out with expenses.'' Chairman of the Road Safety Council, Mr. Ramadhin Smith was also present for the reception and a top Transport Control Department told Business Diary that the Peugeot's were getting rave reviews in the UK because of its low pollution emission standard.

* * * TOU Tourism officials might be wise to start looking over their collective shoulder at Bermuda's giant communist neighbour to the southwest.

Once a leading holiday destination in the Caribbean, Cuba has launched a drive to rebuild that role and now is ready for the sector to take off, new Tourism Minister Osmany Cienfuegos says.

Cienfuegos, appointed last month to head the newly-established ministry, told a news conference this week the 560,000 foreign visitors to Cuba last year represented just a fraction of the some 20 million tourists who took holidays in the Caribbean in 1993, according to a Reuters report.

At Cuba's annual tourism convention at the beach resort of Varadero, Cienfuegos noted that Cuba enjoyed 35 percent of the Caribbean tourist market before the 1959 revolution brought President Fidel Castro to power.

Tourism became almost a dirty word for Cuba after 1959, because of its associations with gambling and prostitution.

Now, it is emerging as a key hard currency earner as communist-ruled Cuba battles to overcome economic crisis triggered by the collapse of the former Soviet Union.

Tourism is also one of the main sectors where Cuba, engaged in a process of cautious economic reform, is encouraging foreign capital.

For the moment, however, revenue from the industry is relatively modest, with net profits well behind the island's traditional main export, sugar cane.

The minister said gross income from tourism in 1993 was some $720 million, with net profits about 30 percent of this. Gross income from the sector could rise to $900 million this year and reach $1 billion next year, said Cienfuegos, a member of the Communist Party Politburo.

The target in visitor numbers is for one million either next year or in 1996, he added. Canadians are the biggest group of foreign visitors.

Cuba aims to have 50,000 hotel rooms by the year 2,000, the minister said.