Adverts aimed at enticing North American visitors to come to Bermuda are due to hit US TV screens and radio broadcasts before the end of February.

And the popularity of shows such as ?Sex And The City? together with the increasing sophistication of target market East Coast Americans are the reasons why the ads include a mild degree of sexual innuendo, say executives of the GlobalHue communications agency.

The fun and sensual experiences that can be encountered on the Island are the focus of the company?s ads.

GlobalHue has signed a three-year deal to boost the profile of Bermuda as a getaway destination for Americans living near the gateway cities of Miami, New York, Boston and Atlanta.

Following a tourism presentation at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel last week, where hoteliers and tourism stakeholders were given a sneak preview of the up-coming advertising drive, GlobalHue executives returned to Michigan to put the final touches to the adverts.

Potential vacationers will be enticed by a number of ads featuring East Coast Americans confiding in friends about their trips to Bermuda, extolling the beauty of the Island and, as they allude to a sensual encounter with their partner, having their words drowned out by the noise of a passing Police siren, honking car horn or noisy Cappuccino machine.

The idea has evolved from the ?Bermuda ? Feel The Love? tourism campaign employed in the Miami area during the past year.

There has been a degree of customer testing to ensure the adverts don?t offend or put off potential holidaymakers, said GlobalHue?s associate creative designer Kevin Stone.

?It?s all about North Americans and Bostonians talking about how great their experience was in Bermuda. They share how close the Island is to where they live and how friendly the people are and how different Bermuda is to other islands,? said Mr. Stone, explaining that rather than have the Island speak for itself, the ads rely on a third-party ?word of mouth? endorsement.

Before the adverts were presented to the Department of Tourism they were tested out with target audiences and the feedback, according to Mr. Stone, was positive.

?The consumers said we had not crossed the line. We were edgy, and we wanted them to be humorous and colourful but not have people turned off,? he said, pointing out that the adverts were in the vein of popular TV shows like ?Sex And The City?.

The broadcast and print adverts are expected to go out on or around February 20.

Kevin Williams, GlobalHue vice-president, said: ?We are excited that we are going to get ahead of previous campaigns by launching in February.?

Amongst the barriers the communications agency has faced since taking on the role of promoting Bermuda to the North American market is the large amount of East Coast residents who do not realise how close the Island is, said Mr. Williams.

The new campaign highlights how Bermuda is only a two-hour flight from most gateway airports.

Last year the company was tasked with promoting the Island to the residents of Miami and used the ?Feel the Love? slogan to entice visitors to try out the direct American Airlines flights from Miami to Bermuda when they were launched last March.

GlobalHue CEO and chairman Don Coleman said his company had learned a lot about Bermuda by having representatives spent time on the Island, understanding the culture and the environment.

?There was a great barrier relating to airfares and hotel costs that prevented a number of people who had never experienced Bermuda from coming and checking it out,? said Mr. Coleman.

An announcement by Deputy Premier Dr. Ewart Brown on forthcoming low-cost flights by Spirit Airlines and JetBlue, together with a pledge to boost the hotel and guesthouse sector with more development and better regulations and standards, will combat some of those barriers previously preventing visitors from giving Bermuda a try, said Mr. Coleman.

He said his agency would focus firstly on its first tier market, those living in the East Coast gateway cities, including Atlanta, this would then be expanded to other East Coast areas including Washington DC and New Jersey, and then the more distant cities of Detroit and Chicago.

?It has been a very positive experience,? said Mr. Coleman of working with Bermuda. ?We have been involved in bringing marketing and sales (for Bermuda tourism) together in North America rather than have them separate and we have worked with most of the key players.

?We have some challenges but we are overcoming them and I believe we will increase the visitorship to Bermuda.

?Of the people who come to the Island, the majority say they are satisfied with their experience. And I would say to Bermudians they should ?feel the love? themselves about their beautiful Island.?