Bermuda Marketplace kicked off its fourth year yesterday at the hotel Le Meridien in London's Piccadilly Circus with 20 exhibitors in attendance and 47 UK travel agents booked to attend.

The event is designed to update UK travel agents on what Bermuda has to offer without the distraction of other countries being in attendance and fighting for their attention.

Invited travel agents can meet, by appointment, with the exhibitors, who include hoteliers; tour operators; group business; golfing; and diving and water sport representatives.

This year the event takes on a new twist with the Marketplace being held for half a day in London and then half a day further north in Manchester instead of being held over two days at one venue in London.

The Director of Tourism in Europe, Ian Parker, explained the thinking by the change. "We ran under the previous system for three years,'' he said, "`and it constantly needs to be reviewed to see if we're doing it right for our market.

"With the increased competition from destinations around the world, we need to take Bermuda to the market -- not expect the market to come to Bermuda.

"We've found in previous years that when we have invited people to come down to London from up north they've complained that it's a long way to go and they would rather give it a miss.'' So this year the organisers are taking Marketplace to these agents via Manchester. The city was chosen because it provided a pair of benefits.

Mr. parker noted: "`Just south of Manchester is the County of Cheshire which, we think, offers a great business opportunity because, besides other things, it is home to the wealthiest village in the UK -- Alderley Edge.'' It is also home to two tour operators who do a great job of selling Bermuda -- Elegant Resorts and ITC or Caribbean Connections, he added. Manchester also has good connections transport-wise making it easily accessible.

It is a good central location for us,'' said Mr. Parker.

But the event will be assessed following the Wednesday show in Manchester, he continued, to see if the change was worthwhile. Other possibilities being considered are returning it to London for two days, staying in London for just one day and visiting another city beside Manchester with the potential to change the other city each year if desired, or keeping the present set up.

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