New initiatives announced by Tourism Minister David Allen on Monday have received a generally favourable response from the hotel and business community.

Tourism is opening a new office in Washington D.C. to drum up conference business and develop the new gateway, and a concierge service of Bermudians will welcome visitors.

The 'Compliments of Bermuda' winter programme, which attracted around 4,000 visitors, will be extended into the summer with promotions including a free flight for a travelling companion if a visitor books for more than seven nights in a hotel through a major wholesaler.

Other initiatives include a black celebrity golf tournament, a soul music festival, adding German and Italian to the Ministry website, a new marketing agency specifically targeting the African American market, and restaurants being able to qualify for tax breaks enjoyed by hotels for capital improvements.

And a conference will be held in May to launch the African Diaspora Heritage Trail.

Chamber of Commerce President Charles Gosling said he was happy with the ideas, but said Mr. Allen should have concentrated on the core North American market.

Bermuda Hotel Association (BHA) President Billy Griffith said there were no surprises in the Budget because they had been worked out between Mr. Allen and the public/private sector Bermuda Alliance for Tourism (BAT), which includes the BHA.

Mr. Gosling said: "One of the pleasing things of the Budget was to see BAT playing a role and receiving praise from the Minister of Finance for the initiatives.

"We feel further involvement of BAT in the Tourism Ministry will have a better and better effect in terms of turning round the tourism figures.

"We are pleased to see the minister is not bereft of ideas, but we wish there was focus on the core (North American) market," he continued. "We appreciate opening up the Washington office and we are pleased that American Airlines has transferred to Washington which is a very important lift area."

Mr. Gosling concluded: "We need to concentrate on making the booking process to make it much smoother so we don't lose potential visitors. We need to make it as seamless as possible from the first declaration of interest in coming to Bermuda to them actually booking."

Mr. Griffith said: "The initiatives the minister is talking about are all initiatives that we discussed with him through the BHA and BAT, so its not stuff he's pulling out of a hat.

"There is a lot of cultural merit in the African Diaspora Trail. It probably will not draw in huge amounts of numbers but it is a good thing for the Bermuda tourism landscape because it gives something else to do and something more to see."

Mr. Griffith added: "The soul festival is an interesting thought. We have the jazz festival, which works great, but jazz attracts purists and has a restricted audience whereas a soul festival will probably appeal to more people.

"Our marketing committee at BAT is putting a proposal to the wholesalers and they are considering how this free companion flight offer will work to help us get away from the perception of high air fares."