Premier Jennifer Smith has urged African and Caribbean countries to join Bermuda in creating an African Diaspora Heritage Trail.

Ms Smith addressed members of the Africa Travel Association on Monday on Bermuda's tourism initiative to commemorate the African Diaspora that began 500 years ago with the slave trade.

Tourism Minister David Allen on Sunday presented his plan to the board of directors of the Africa Travel Association, which has 34 member countries, at their 26th international Congress in Cape Town, South Africa.

On Monday, the Premier spoke of her vision for the initiative, and offered to host a meeting within the next 12 months for ministers and officers from Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere to formulate a plan of action for the African Diaspora Heritage Trail.

She said told delegates that the Caribbean Tourism Organisation was briefed on the concept by Mr. Allen at its board of directors meeting in New York last month.

And she added: "The concept entails designating black cultural and historical sites along an African Diaspora Heritage Trail in Bermuda, the Caribbean, the US, and other points in the western hemisphere to complement UNESCO's Africa-based Slave Route Project.

"The African Diaspora Heritage Trail shows the evolution of the peoples of the African Diaspora in the western hemisphere, including during the post-emancipation period.'' And she said a project of this size would not only commemorate Bermuda's ancestors, but provide a major marketing opportunity where the Island could weave its rich past and common heritage into a blueprint for the future.

The Premier said the Bermuda African Diaspora Heritage Trail had already been laid out in a newly published guide, and the Department of Tourism was ready to work with other participating countries on an expanded marketing strategy.

She added: "Tourists are looking for more than sun, sand and surf.

"Tourists are looking for quality experiences, and the cultural richness of the communities built by persons of African descent around the world will give them this.

"Bermuda's early history is closely linked to the trans-Atlantic slave trade with the Island located at the geographic crossroads between Africa, the Caribbean and North America.

"No earlier record has been found of African slaves being transported across the Atlantic to the Western Hemisphere than the records of Spanish navigator Juan de Bermudez, who discovered Bermuda, found in the National Archives in Seville, Spain.''.

The Premier is expected to return from South Africa later this week.