In Israel, Wales, and Banff, Canada, tourist chiefs are still feeling the effects long after the biggest media travel circus in the world, the Society of American Travel Writers conference, pulled out of town.

Stories written and commissioned by the 500 journalists during the week long conference can spark a tourism revival or confirm the downward spiral of a destination that is not delivering the goods.

The message from each location that recently hosted the SATW conference is that Bermudians must pull together to show the Island in its best light because the impression created will reverberate in tourist publications and programmes for years to come.

And with tourism in crisis with visitor numbers plumetting, the Island cannot afford to get it wrong in September when the conference is held at the Fairmont Southampton Princess.

The Royal Gazette contacted tourist representatives from Israel, Wales and Banff, and all stressed the importance of ensuring the Island is showcased because of the millions of dollars of publicity the event generates.

Tourist representatives in all locations said they experienced a massive increase in publicity, but it was difficult to translate this accurately into increased visitor numbers in succeeding years.

Israel held the SATW conference in 1998 and experienced its best tourism year ever.

Geoffrey Weill, the co-chair 1998 conference, said it produced articles in publications with a combined circulation of 35 million, with additional exposure on the internet.

"The millennium and 2000 years of Christianity was obviously a huge thing for Israel,'' he said. "Surely SATW contributed to the increase, but how much, no one can know.

"If it is held in London, it doesn't do a thing, but for somewhere less discovered, it can be very helpful.

"I'm sure Wales did incredibly well and Bermuda will do too. The SATW convention is an incredible opportunity to speak to not only writers, but people in the PR business of tourism and the message is you can't do too much to make it a success.'' Tourist bosses in the ski resort of Banff, Alberta, used the 1999 conference to highlight activities held during their winter -- or shoulder -- season.

Visitor numbers for winter shot up 30 percent in 1999-2000, and they are expecting the same period this year to witness a further 15 to 25 percent surge in numbers.

Cameron Spence, senior manager, marketing and commerce, for the Banff/Lake Louise Tourism Bureau, said: "It really showed the community how to work together to do this programme.

"A lot of organisations that we work with now know how to do this. The legacy is that our members now know how to work with media programmes.

"We are expecting $3 million in achieved publicity from stories that were written and researched here. SATW will be giving us a clipping book that will give us the two years of exposure that SATW has been able to track.

"We are assuming that that is going to be significant. We've had copies of several articles that ran immediately after they visited and quite a few worth $200-400,000 of equivalent advertising value.

"We've also had several of the journalists that were up who have returned on other story ideas or editors have contracted other journalists to write pieces.

"It is difficult to track the motivation of visitors based on what they are reading, but research from our side suggests publicity is one of the key motivating factors for people making travel decisions.

"Publicity is perceived to be more credible than advertising and it has a really major impact. Publicity tends to be something you cannot purchase anyhow.

"Bermuda should really understand how important this is and try to work closely together to make it happen.

"Its a really terrific broad group of journalists. They will be very interested in finding out about the unique history of Bermuda and they are well travelled, so you should be really excited about the opportunity of being selected.'' Last year's SATW conference in Wales was the largest in the organisation's history.

The Welsh Tourist Board estimates it generated around $4.5 million in direct spending, and it is hoping for $12-13 million in media coverage.

WTB spokeswoman Catrin Harries said: "The resulting media coverage throughout Canada and the US is priceless.

BUSINESS BUC