Dear Sir,

I have been fortunate in being able to join friends in Canada on a holiday in the Algarve of southern Portugal. They advertise to attract tourists year-round by publishing widely package deals which include air fare and hotel for one or two or more weeks.

I can compare off-season and seasonal costs for my holiday and I can pay by credit card in advance.

There is a huge and growing middle class worldwide looking for affordable holidays.

Thus, it is easy to choose how much I can afford and, if I plan far enough ahead, I can arrive at my destination with all large expenses paid and free to spend more money during my holiday.

For example, on a trip to Israel, I made a spur-of-the-moment air trip to Eilat to see the sea gardens and visit tourist sites there.

On my trip to Portugal, I made an unplanned trip to Madeira for almost a week. One hotel encouraged the excursion by crediting my prepaid account and adding the extra days to my stay. Bermuda could learn a few tips from these tourist resorts.

On another matter, stories about Bermuda tourism debates are often long, but only deal with “he said ... they said” and do no research on the matter debated. For example, how much more interesting your front-page article “Airline mulling service from the UK” if we had data about the volume of traffic between Bermuda and London historically, and the capacity of planes used by BA, and other airlines before, and that new proposals might now offer.

The first part of this letter is the background to a suggestion that Bermuda should encourage European airlines such as Air France and KLM, if they are not usually fully booked on the North American run, to divert one flight a week to accommodate all-inclusive package deals like those described earlier.

The aim would be to build traffic until one dedicated flight a week was feasible and profitable for all concerned. To get this started, a range of accommodation from hotels and guesthouses should be offered, with extra discounts until the airline capacity is fully used. Keep the airline happy.

Then grow the hotel-guesthouse trade. Hotels and guesthouses in this initiative should form a special association to monitor and to adapt to events. Loss leaders are not just for stores.

Yours truly, BERTRAM GUISHARD