Tourists will get a $100 credit to spend on the Island and up to 35 percent off hotel rooms as part of deal to entice American visitors to Bermuda over the winter, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

The public and private sector Bermuda Alliance for Tourism (BAT) and wholesalers selling packaged holidays to the Island from the United States - which have worked out the deal - are also in talks with airlines to try to get reductions on flights from America.

The packages are designed to attract Americans still shell-shocked from the September 11 terrorist attacks to take a vacation in Bermuda.

It follows on the heels of a separate deal aimed at the European market announced earlier this month offering 20 percent off rooms and discounts on shops, restaurants and travel.

Tourists who book the special deals will be given a passbook when they check in at their hotels which will outline the shops, restaurants and activity providers where they can spend the $100. Hotels will offer rooms at between 20 to 35 percent below their normal winter rates.

The deal was hammered out at a seminar in New York last week between Tourism Minister David Allen, Bermudian hoteliers, the powerful US wholesalers who sell package deals to the Island in the US, and travel guru Peter Yesawich.

The incentive will be marketed immediately in the US, and will cover travel from November 1 to March 31.

William (Billy) Griffith, the co-chair of BAT, said the US wholesalers were impressed that the Island had organised the New York meeting to discuss ways of promoting Bermuda in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

The high costs of a Bermuda vacation have always been cited as a problem by some tourists. The Island also faces heavy competition now from cheaper destinations in the Caribbean which are offering bargain deals to US travellers for the winter season.

Acting Director of Tourism Judith Hall-Bean said: "It was agreed that we would work together to reduce the cost of a Bermuda holiday package and add value.

"By this we mean that the airlines will be asked to reduce the air component, with the hotels doing the same with accommodation.

"Several restaurants, activity providers and retailers have also signed on and we are extending an array of value added offers that will be recorded in a passbook to be used by visitors upon their check-in at their hotels."

Mr. Griffith said: "The wholesalers indicated that they were very pleased that Bermuda was the first destination to organise a retreat with a view to finalising a promotion to go back into the marketplace following the events of September 11."

The Island is hoping to confirm details of a major summer incentive at the Caribbean Hotel Association Marketplace in January.