MORE than 120 overseas visitors flew to the island to watch the inaugural Bermuda Open squash tournament last week, according to organisers.

And around a million pages have been downloaded from the Open's web site, suggesting a high level of global interest.

Bermuda Squash Racquets Association president Stephen Young said he was hopeful the number of visitors from overseas would be greater next year.

Tourism Minister Ren?e Webb, whose department was one of the event's sponsors, said she was impressed with the way the tournament had been organised and pleased with the huge exposure it had given the island, particularly through television.

Mr. Young said: "We haven't worked out the final figures yet, but there were probably between 120 and 130 people who visited Bermuda especially to come to the tournament and stayed here between two and ten nights.

"There may be more, people who are friends of people here or those who came in without letting us know.

"That number of extra people coming to the island during a quiet time of year for tourism is quite impressive, but we're slightly disappointed with those numbers."

A glass court was shipped in from Austria and theatre-style flip seating to accommodate more than 600 spectators was transported here from the US.

It was all set up inside the new Jesse Vesey Sports Centre building at Bermuda High School, where a capacity crowd watched last Saturday's final, which was won by Lee Beachill.

One of the most effective ways that tournament organisers were able to lure overseas squash fans here was their booth at the US Open in Boston. They also advertised the event on the database of the US Squash Racquets Association.

"This year was not so successful in attracting visitors as we'd hoped," Mr. Young said. "Next year we'll be able to start planning much earlier.

"We only had from the end of December to plan the whole thing. For next year's event, which will be bigger and better, we should be starting to plan by around July.

"Word of mouth after our first tournament should also help. We had a lot of hits on our web site. Around a million pages were downloaded. Many people are still downloading the semi-final between David Palmer and Jonathan Power, because it was such a great match."

Minister Webb said she had been impressed by the organisation of the Open.

"It was a first-class event in terms of the arrangements and in terms of bringing the very best squash players in the world to Bermuda," Ms Webb said.

"We supported this event because it is an international event that brings in overseas visitors and more importantly because of the television exposure it gives the island on ESPN and Fox, a potential audience of 375 million.

"They did not just film the matches, they also did a few interviews and showed some shots of the island."

Known as "the Wall Street sport", squash is played by many high-income individuals and more than half the squash courts in the US are based in the big cities of the northeast. That makes squash a match with the type of people Tourism is looking to lure to Bermuda.

"I think in terms of the viewing audience, squash tends to follow the demographic we are hoping to reach," Ms Webb said.

"So we are very supportive of the event and hope it goes on to become an annual event on Bermuda's sporting calendar."

Mr. Young said plans would shortly be under way for a second Open next year, though no dates had been set.