The recent RG: In Our Opinion piece “The Buried Treasure of Cultural Tourism” made the timely point that we have a wealth of resources appealing to the cultural-heritage vacationer that have been overlooked in Bermuda’s marketing.

Raising awareness of our fantastic museums and cultural attractions as a whole is essential. The Bermuda Tourism Authority’s early initiatives may address the huge marketing asymmetry. It’s long overdue. We have gilt-edged assets within the visual arts. They need to be deployed to improve our traction in the cultural tourism market; an increasingly important market subset.

Just look at the demographic the Island is targeting: the high end North American with disposable income for several overseas vacations per year.

It is the very group of people who have been identified as placing cultural or arts-related activities high on their list when making a vacation decision.

In fact, being able to include at least one arts, humanities, historic or heritage activity or event on their vacation itinerary routinely rates more than twice as high as any factor influencing their choice of destination according to numerous surveys conducted by the Travel Industry Association of America and other hospitality sector organisations.

Yet, these same respondents still see Bermuda as a beach and water sports destination. Of course our natural amenities are our major assets — but we are, as the tourism tagline says, “so much more”. Indeed it is understood that the cultural tourist spends so much more! And that is the key point.

I want to consider in particular how our major art facilities and organisations contribute to this growing sector of the travel market as part of our broad cultural heritage. Museums and galleries are part of the leisure and tourist industry. After all, most people visit them on their time off.

The many internationally celebrated creative luminaries who have spent time in Bermuda and celebrated their association with the Island in their art can act as a big lure in attracting cultural tourists.

They have enabled us to punch way above our weight in terms of worldwide recognition.

It is a point the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art often makes as it continues to lead the charge for a renewed focus on the Island’s potential as a cultural tourism destination.

Our culture is rich and diverse. Take just two examples of how international cultural icons — Mark Twain and the animated Christmas classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer — benefit us on the world stage through their Bermuda connection. And both Twain and Rudolph creator Arthur Rankin Jr have recently been recognised with major exhibits at the Botanical Gardens museum.

You only have to see visitors taking pictures by Mark Twain’s seated statue at Masterworks to understand his enduring cross-cultural appeal. Last year Masterworks marked the literary legend’s long and happy association with the Island. It was a collaborative show with the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut.

The reciprocal arrangement continues soon when Masterworks lends the US museum – a top American cultural tourism attraction, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors annually — one of its three Winslow Homer Bermuda paintings from their permanent collection. In doing so it raises our international profile.

Incidentally, Mark Twain wrote in the late 19th century that Americans, “when they go to Bermuda once… are sure to go again”. Very true today as our repeat visitors contribute so much to our economy through their fidelity to our cause.

Such shows are of international relevance and are sometimes carried by foreign media gaining priceless free advertising.

Similarly, the Rudolph At 50 show held at Masterworks over the Christmas period was another fine example for the potential of cultural tourism Bermuda.

The festive animated classic by American Bermudian producer/director/writer Arthur Rankin Jr has international cultural resonance.

And the iconic cultural power of the little animated reindeer with the glowing nose should not be underestimated. He was honoured by a commemorative series of stamps issued by the US Postal Service last year to mark the 50-year anniversary of the seasonal special’s first broadcast.

The launch of that stamp series — which received coast-to-coast news coverage in the US — could have been used as the point of departure for an off-season marketing campaign touting Bermuda as the perfect festive getaway spot. But it was an opportunity missed by the tourism marketers.

Our other major visual arts gallery, The Bermuda National Gallery has much to offer with its important collection. It made a recent move to open a gallery space in St George’s. However, the subsequent closure of that satellite gallery was probably unavoidable given our current economic woes. Maybe they were ahead of the game but the National Gallery should be applauded for trying. We shall have to wait and see if any wholesale effort to make our painfully neglected World Heritage site into a viable cultural tourism site would make such an undertaking viable at some point in the future.

The international en plein air painting phenomenon is increasing to grow in worldwide popularity and there are possibilities for Bermuda tourism in this field, too.

Funding is in place from the Bermuda Tourism Authority for our local plein air group to stage our own outdoor painting festival later this year and they are hoping to attract enough visitors to make the event a fixture.

When you add our wealth of visual artists from the Bermuda Society of Arts to the Chewstick Foundation to Dockyard Arts Centre and the commercial Windjammer II gallery, we are well placed to tap this lucrative niche market. With all these opportunities visitors can’t fail to have an authentic, value-added Bermudian visual arts experience.

It is a receptiveness to new ideas allied with vision that are needed to cultivate the art of cultural tourism. Let’s hope, that unlike its predecessors, the recently formed Bermuda Tourism Authority provides both for our beleaguered hospitality sector.