interacting with visitors and occupying jobs presently held by foreigners.

These were two of the arguments posed during a PLP public forum held last week on the ills plaguing the local tourism industry.

Bermuda Industrial Union President Derrick Burgess told members of the public who attended the Leopard's Club forum, entitled `Pathways to a Rebirth in Bermuda Tourism', that bus boys should have never been eliminated from the hotels.

"When the hotels eliminated the use of bus boys ten years ago they eliminated the training ground for workers,'' Mr. Burgess said. "The result is today, when you dine, it is hard to find Bermudians working.

"The BIU have called on for years for the Government to bring back bus boys and training for waiters. Now with an election coming up they launch a waiter training scheme.'' Although he thanked foreign workers for the contribution they have made to Bermuda, Mr. Burgess pointed out that they were not able to inform visitors about local traditions and customs.

"Guest workers cannot tell our guests the tradition behind playing marbles on Good Friday,'' he said. "We lose the extras that used to be the normal.'' Mr. Burgess also said more than the `Let Yourself Go' campaign was needed to address the problems facing the Island's tourism industry.

"The country's biggest asset is its people and tourism and the hotels have overlooked that resource,'' he said. "The workers must be part of the process of fixing tourism. The Department of Tourism can't do it alone.'' Joining Mr. Burgess as panelist for the forum was taxi driver Michael Fields, director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum, Dr. Edward Harris, Bermuda Federation of Musicians and Variety Arts president Lloyd Simmons and Stonington Beach Hotel general manager Edmund Tucker.

Mr. Fields, president of the Bermuda Executive Drivers Ltd., said the taxi industry was under a strain as a result of all the airlines arriving within a few hours of each other.

"There are strains on the transportation with all of the aircraft coming down between 11.30 a.m. and 2.30 p.m.,'' he said. "People end up waiting around outside the airport because there isn't enough recycle time for taxi drivers.

"Then we have situations where a six-seater cab is carrying one person, while four others are waiting.'' Mr. Fields called for a multiple fare system to help ease the congestion.

"We have been asking for a multiple fare structure for years to allow us to service more than one passenger and to be more efficient,'' he said.

And he said service was being hampered by the Government's decision to allow taxi drivers the option of having radios.

"Communication is important to improving business,'' Mr. Fields pointed out.

"With Government's decision to make radios noncompulsory, we now have around 200 of the 600 taxis without radios and do not know where fares are.

"These drivers may be sitting on Front Street waiting for a fare, while there are a number of people waiting for taxis at The Princess, not even five minutes away. This is why service has gone down.'' But Mr. Fields noted that despite these "problems'' the taxi industry still enjoyed a favourable ratings from visitors.

"During the Commission on Competitiveness it was put forth to the Government that the transportation sector received a 97 percent favourable rating from guests on their departure,'' he recalled. "Taxi drivers start and end the visitor's vacation and what is it that you remember when you go away -- the beginning and the end.'' And he argued that Bermudians were capable of solving the problems that plague the Tourism industry.

"Locals are capable of doing the job right. Ordinary people working in hospitality have the answers to the problems in the Tourism industry, but they are being ignored,'' Mr. Fields claimed. "We have a number of non-Bermudians being paid to sell Bermuda. Who knows Bermuda better than Bermudians -- no one.'' Dr. Harris, meanwhile, urged the audience to protect and preserve the "Bermudian things'' that visitors could not find anywhere else.

He said the major elements of the Island's heritage were the unique architecture and homes, the historic town of St. George's, the shipwrecks, Dockyard, the forts and Bermuda's natural environment.

"They are the only things we've got and if we keep getting rid of them, visitors will have nothing to see,'' Dr. Harris warned. "If we get rid of them we'll be no different than anywhere else.'' In the entertainment sector, Mr. Simmons argued that people brought visitors back to Bermuda, not beaches.

"You can find nice beaches anywhere, visitors come back for people and service,'' he said. "We had people coming back to hear Bermudians, like the Talbot Brothers, then all of a sudden we are not good enough. What are we comparing ourselves too? "When people are away, they go out to hear what a country has to offer, not the same thing they could hear back home.'' Mr. Simmons claimed money and a desire "by the powers that be'' not to see Bermudians excel was behind the decrease in the number of locals in the entertainment sector.

Derrick Burgess