Tourism Minister Ewart Brown has cracked down on red tape after admitted stifling bureaucracy had made developers feel unwelcome.

He said Bermuda had 16 major projects underway accounting for nearly $1.2 billion of investment.

But the road to development had not been an easy one, said Dr. Brown in a speech to Caribbean Hotel and Investment Conference on Tuesday evening.

?In the first place, our thriving colonial heritage has made us heirs to a bureaucracy rivalled only by Whitehall itself,? he said.

?Simply put, prospective developers were not made to feel welcome in Bermuda.

?Many were quoted as saying it was just too difficult to do business here.

?One developer tried three times to have the footprint for a new development approved and when, in sheer frustration, he asked for guidance on just what could get approved the response was ?Oh no, we don?t do that, you just keep trying and we?ll let you know when you?ve got it right?.

?I knew then that unless we urgently addressed the culture of our dealings with developers, we were doomed to failure and our hotel infrastructure would simply crumble.?

Dr. Brown said the Ministry of Tourism and Transport had now become a one-stop shop for developers.

?We are now their champion within the bureaucracy and slowly but surely we have created an atmosphere conducive to the significant investments of capital I have outlined.?

In January American hotel financier Bill Steckroth said Bermuda needed to be careful not to frighten off the ?handful of lenders? able to deliver the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to build new hotels.

He spoke out after suffering two setbacks in trying to bring huge hotel investment finance to the Island ? once in Hamilton and the second in the East End.

Those remarks were dismissed by Dr. Brown, at the time, as coming from people trying to to spread unsettling ?doom and gloom? and he said there were plenty of others lining up to come to Bermuda.

In his speech this week, Dr. Brown said Bermuda?s cumbersome regulatory process had been streamlined after input from hotel consultants Chase Burritt, of Burritt and Associates.

Development briefs have been prepared for potential sites and circulated in the local and global hotel community.

Dr. Brown said the effort was paying off with exciting developments at Club Med, Aerial Sands and Wyndham.

Staff housing and the chance for Bermudians to rise to the top was key to hotel development said the Minister while clearing the way for cut-price air carriers would help boost visitor numbers.

With more flights from North America it was time to increase links from the Caribbean, said Dr. Brown.

He said: ?Virtually every Caribbean island can claim a Bermudian cousin ? it?s time for a family reunion.?

Continuing his overview Dr. Brown said Bermuda had become a victim of complacency having set the standard for the world.

?As we became so exclusive that all we did was exclude, our competitors perfected our model and lured our core guests to their shores.

?In spite of 21 years of declining numbers, only recently have we been honest and in internal discussions faced the fact that our elegance was tarnished and the gilt had grown dim.?

But world competition had kick started renovation said Dr. Brown as he urged the conference attendees to forge partnerships to improve the region.