‘In the sector of heritage tourism an important part of the economic contributions of historic preservation the researchers found that heritage tourists stay 4.7 nights longer than the average tourist, and spend 78 percent more in restaurants than other travellers.” Randall Mason, ‘Economics and Historic Preservation, a Guide and Review of the Literature’, The Brookings Institution, 2005.With respect to the fundamental economy of their island home, ie tourism, Bermudians excel at the self-fulfilling prophecy syndrome, perhaps exemplified by the recent adoption of the silly phrase, “It is what it is”, with all the built-in complacency so implied by that bon mot.In no area of national life is the SFP syndrome more fulfilling for its enthusiastic believers than the oft-quoted opinion that ‘Tourism is dead’, or dying, or challenged in some terminal way. While pouring millions down the gullet of a bottomless stomach for many a year now, leaders in various walks of life have propounded the view that tourism in Bermuda is on its way to the gallows, if only perhaps for the sin of not being as immediately bankable and as sexy as those other ‘international businesses’, beloved for obvious reasons of self-interest by some professional classes. Tourism is THE largest international business and if our slice of its body corporate is heading for an early grave, its demise and burial rests largely in our hands.Putting aside the more historic period of tourism development between the last quarter of the nineteenth century and 1920s, we are looking at the expansion of that ‘trade’ from the early 1930s, when purpose-made ‘cruise’ ships, like the Monarch of Bermuda began to debouch hundreds of visitors weekly on our somewhat pristine shores, pristine in terms of Bermuda’s heritage assets, in the areas of natural environment, shipwrecks, fortifications, vernacular architecture, the town of St. George’s, the Royal Naval Dockyard, and other monuments in between, such as that star of the Industrial Age, Gibb’s Hill Lighthouse.Looking back, it is fair to say that the vital role that such heritage assets played in tourism was taken largely for granted, the backdrop to a stage setting which centred on golf, hotels and a few ‘attractions’. In a brochure, dating to 1931 and just titled ‘Bermuda’, with a inside cover subtitle of ‘The Isles of Rest’, the tourism department of the day, the Bermuda Trade Development Board ‘cordially invites the inquiries of prospective visitors’ to get in touch should they wish more information. The brochure tells one of the weather and climate and what to wear, with three paragraphs on History and Government; it continues with notes on sailing, bathing and fishing. The ‘attractions’ are the Magical Caves, the Sea Gardens and the Marine Aquarium. Golf gets seven entries, followed by tennis, riding, cycling andin those less obese dayswalking.The Department of Agriculture’s “station” weighs in along with mention of flowers, trees, vegetables (Bermudian) and Easter lilies, rounded out by shopping. A list and some pictures of 33 hotels and guesthouses occupy a major section of the brochure, of which only two now exist, the Princess in Pembroke and Elbow Beach. That is to write that there is no mention of any of the major classes of cultural heritage, as now recognized and noted above. St. George’s, for example, now a World Heritage Site, is somewhere over the horizon, although one must say that the historic Dockyard was still a military establishment into the early 1950s.All that is to suggest that most aspects of Bermuda’s heritage were largely an unconscious part of the tourism agenda. The “brand” of Bermuda was more of an ambient one, with a few items like golf and an aquarium to break up the everyday life on ‘The Isles of Rest’. Lately an hotelier, Michael Winfield, suggested in the Press that Bermuda had lost its brand and sense of identity. Other recent commentators on the local economy implore us to embrace further ‘international business’ and to write-off tourism, as if it were some failing product on the balance sheet of someone’s beloved expression of the place as ‘Bermuda Inc’, a name that has no tourist appeal whatsoever.To bring those ideas together, what is needed is the remaking of the ‘Bermuda Brand’ and the reinvigorating of the tourism economy: the key to both could lie in the heritage of this place, especially in the idle winter months. A newspaper headline on 25 January 2012 extolled the fact that ‘Brand Britain puts heritage on show in an Olympic year’, but of course the main reason why most visitors usually tour that rainy isle is to see heritage, so Britain is not rebranding, but rather selling what sells, exploiting, if you will, their sense of identity and place, which comes largely from an understanding and appreciation of their history and heritage, as preserved for Britons and their visitors in all the heritage sites, museums and other heritage institutions which abound in that damp country.Moves are in train for Bermuda to establish a national plan for tourism and in that it is hoped that all interested will consult the bible on the subject, Professor Duncan McDowall’s Another World: Bermuda and the Rise of Modern Tourism. It is hoped that heritage would be one of the central planks in such a new plan; to ignore its potential would be to deny Bermuda’s identity and the proven value of emphasis and investment in the monuments of the past (and present) in the tourism economy. What has made and makes Bermuda Bermudian and attractive to visitors is our heritage in all its forms, but in particular that which has been planted in the landscape by way of historic buildings and monuments.Almost two decades ago, a then Minister of Tourism asked Bermudians to become more engaged in tourism and so fired up, I wrote a series of articles on the value of heritage to the economy. The response to those messages was so muted as to be inaudible, so I have dusted off the files, one of has become corrupted (technically speaking), and intend again to present the contents of those articles to you, the Public, over the next weeks, in the hope that Heritage may now take its rightful place in the top echelon of the tourism economy, for other than brainpower, the only gold, silver and iron mines we have on this small patch of heaven are the diamonds that are the legacies of the past in the heritage assets of Bermuda.So the twist in this tale is whether we will continue, as far as heritage tourism goes, to let the Fates led us hither and yon, as per ye Motto of old, “Quo Fata Ferunt”, or if we will finally understand the vital role that heritage plays in any tourism economy, including ours here in the Isles of Rest, and do something positive about its inclusion in that trade, now and forever more: Amen.Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Executive Director of the National Museum at Dockyard. Comments may be made to director[AT]bmm.bm or 704-5480