understanding that tourism and the high standard of living provided for Bermudians by visitors will take pride of place.

After years of success, Bermudians began to take tourism for granted and found the need to welcome visitors not to their liking. It is true that we have to go the extra mile to get our tourism industry back on track but that is only one problem. For far too long Bermudians have put their own convenience and their own comfort ahead of the needs of visitors. As long as the money poured in, it was easy to set the niceties aside.

There are many areas, both large and small, where we can make visitors feel both warm and welcome. Vacation time should be a happy and relaxed time and we need to make a Bermuda vacation as hassle free as we can.

We should agree to keep our domestic squabbles away from our visitors. Too often our own anger, for one reason or another, gets taken out on some poor visitor on the road, on the sidewalk, in a store or in a bar. Then too, too often small labour disputes result in work stoppage and visitor inconvenience.

Work stoppages in the visitor industry which disrupt expensive vacations should be a last resort.

It has been suggested that Bermudians should offer visitors a lift and that makes a good deal of sense as long as we do not offer the lift and then tell them our problems. Too often visitors complain of being lectured by taxi drivers who try to explain the complications of politics and daily life in Bermuda. Lecture Bermudians if necessary but the visitors left enough of their own problems at home.

Give visitors space on the roads. They are unfamiliar with riding on the left, and often uncertain of mopeds. Offering to help with directions when you see them by the roadside grappling with a map can be a great help. Remember that visitors have saved their vacation money for a long time while dreaming of our beaches and do not make a lazy day on the beach uncomfortable for visitors while we play football.

Just a simple smile and a nod and a greeting to a visitor can change the atmosphere and make them aware that they are welcome in Bermuda. Too often these days we are too busy to be nice -- and we are nice by nature. Take a little time for visitors because without them we will all have plenty of time.

The VIP Ambassadors now volunteering at the Airport are certainly a step in the right direction. Their smiles and their jackets saying "Welcome to Bermuda'' should go a long way toward warming up the Airport. We note that a welcome drink is on the way, rather late in the season but on the way. We still need that sign outside which says "Welcome to Bermuda''...and a smile from Immigration and some music and free baggage carts.

This is not the time to relax because the job is just beginning. Hopefully the Airport Ambassadors will infect most of the rest of us.