Bermuda as a tourism product is in trouble.

And as a mature destination it needs to take time out to seriously and honestly evaluate what road it should take into the next millennium.

This was the message from Tourism Minister David Dodwell after hoteliers recently attended a presentation on a service strategy plan designed by the Freeman Group.

The concept involves the creation of customised performance standards in all hotels on the Island, together with a system for measuring the extent of which hotels are living up to those standards.

And Mr. Dodwell is so keen to get the programme up and running that he is prepared to pump in over $400,000 over the next 18 months as long as a minimum of 75 percent of the Island's total guest rooms sign on.

He said: "To improve our product, we must set higher standards of performance for ourselves in order to successfully rise above the challenges of competitive destinations in the future.'' Mr. Dodwell added: "It (the programme) has been developed by the Freeman Group who are, first and foremost, experienced hotel people. They know what works in the real world because they have been there.'' The core of the programme works to: Identify clients' needs, develop a plan of action, and guide management to be more effective; Provide hands-on employee guidance in the work place, under actual working conditions; Assure that the most important or "guest critical'' tasks are identified and mastered first; Repeat all learned skills, one at a time, until they become second nature; and Establish a self-sustaining system of accountability for managers and supervisors who are directly responsible for employee performance so standards will be maintained and respected long after the Freeman personnel leave.

Ariel Sands general manager Jason Powell said he would take part in the programme as long as other hoteliers accompanied him.

He explained that the more hoteliers who signed up, the lesser the final cost.

Pink Beach managing director W.A. (Toppy) Cowen said he would also be behind the programme and added that he felt it was something the industry had been looking forward to for a very long time.