Tourism Minister Ewart Brown's announcement over the weekend that he has been tasked by the Premier to reinvigorate the long-moribund African Diaspora Heritage Trail has added more weight to the growing feeling that it's not Dr. Brown who is running the Tourism Ministry but the ghost of the late David Allen.

Many of the same descriptions used to describe Mr. Allen, notably "energy", are used for Dr. Brown as well.

Dr. Brown arguably has been more effective in his Cabinet career than Mr. Allen was. That would not be difficult and Dr. Brown has succeeded, wearing his transport hat, in bringing more airlines and air seats to the Island, and to some extent reducing airfares as a result. If Bermudians, rather than visitors seem to be taking advantage of this, well so be it. The bottom line is that Dr. Brown delivered, where others, including Mr. Allen, could not.

And this is not a criticism of the Heritage Trail, which rightly recognises the efforts of black Bermudians of the past who have not received the credit they deserve. Still, this is a project that rightly belongs under the Community and Cultural Affairs portfolio, and should not be viewed purely as a tourism marketing ploy.

But Dr. Brown is also showing the same signs of frenzied activity and scattershot marketing efforts that were the signature of Mr. Allen's troubled tenure in Tourism.

When Renee Webb succeeded Mr. Allen on his death, she did much to refocus the Ministry and to identify the key markets and visitors Bermuda needed to succeed.

While not everyone liked her management style, this was a much-needed steadying of the ship.

Now, though, Dr. Brown, while saying he is merely fine-tuning Ms Webb's approach, seems to be turning his back on it.

He is going back to Germany and Italy, where so many Ministers have tried and failed to build new markets. He is building the Island's presence on the US West Coast in the hopes that Californians will come to Bermuda via Miami.

He is converting the tourism offices in smaller North American cities into home offices both as a cost-saving measure and because half of Bermuda's visitors now book their vacations via the Internet rather than through travel agents, whom the tourism offices primarily served. The cost savings achieved through the closures will be spent on more sales efforts and marketing. This is probably the right decision.

But the frenetic and widespread travel and the efforts to "put the buzz back" in Bermuda all sound eerily familiar to Mr. Allen's ill-fated efforts.

Dr. Brown has asked this newspaper and all Bermudians to suspend their scepticism about tourism and to give his Ministry a chance to carry out its plans. He is entitled to that. But suspending scepticism is not the same as eliminating it.

In the end, the test of any Tourism Minister's success is measured in visitor arrival and spending figures and Dr. Brown has set targets. Whether he reaches those marks will determine if he succeeds or fails. Even so, if he announces plans to exploit the Argentine tourism market, then the community will know that Mr. Allen has come back from the dead.