Bermuda must target the baby boomer generation of wealthy "adult teenagers'' if the Island's tourist industry is to flourish, a marketing guru has claimed.

Phil Goodman told the Bermuda National Tourism Conference that he was optimistic that the Island would draw these visitors if it developed eco-tourism.

He said the Island's marketing strategy had to focus on baby boomers - people born between 1945 and 1964 -- but must never classify them as seniors, even if they are over 50.

Mr. Goodman, a consultant for Fox TV, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Ford, said: "This is baby boomer heaven, no question about that. Eco-tourism is a major factor.'' But he warned the Island not to succumb to the lure of casinos to attract more visitors because baby boomers liked to do everything with their children.

"The gaming industry, when it comes between boomers and their children, the children come first every time,'' he told the conference at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute on Friday.

He said baby boomers -- the brightest, best-educated, best travelled and most influential generation yet -- were the key to tourism marketing.

Urging the industry to "boomerise business,'' Mr. Goodman described the baby boomers as eternal teenagers who were defined by their mindset, not their age.

He described this key group as having a "discrepancy between what's going on in their mind and their body. Not only have they got the mind-set, they have got the money''.

He said baby boomers in the United States would have disposable income of one trillion dollars by 2003.

Mr. Goodman said it was vital to target the children of baby boomers because the family unit was the most important thing to them.

Although some may be in their fifties, it would a fatal marketing mistake to group them together with seniors, said Mr. Goodman.

He said 56 per cent of baby boomers would consider themselves seniors when they were aged between 70-77, and 73 per cent of them consider themselves to be teenagers at heart.

He described the generation gap between baby boomers and their parents as the biggest in history.

TOURISM TOU