John Harvey took an indirect route to reach his position as one of the most influential members of Bermuda?s tourism industry.

For more than two decades he has headed both the Bermuda Hotel Association and the Hotel Employers of Bermuda organisation.

Brought up near Somerset Bridge he went to Wilberforce University in Ohio, the first university owned and operated by African-Americans. But before graduating from social studies and pre-law he had decided to return to Bermuda where he joined the Bermuda Police Service.

In 10 years with the force he rose to the position of detective sergeant and also chairman of the Police Association union.

Then, in 1978, he made the unusual switch from representing employees to representing employers by accepting the Chief Executive role with the Hotel Employers of Bermuda (HEB).

?Employee relations were tense at the time, but I thought ?here?s an opportunity?,? he said. He took over at a time when the hotel industry was recovering from damage caused by an Island-wide hotel strike centred on a dispute over union recognition at the Christian Willowbank Hotel in Somerset.

Virtually his first task as head of the HEB was to sign a written agreement with the Bermuda Industrial Union to ensure there would not be no repeat of the all-out action.

?But the ink was not even dry on that agreement when 1981 came around,? said Mr. Harvey, referring to the industrial unrest and subsequent general strike that momentarily shut virtually every business on the Island.

?I knew the union was worried about striking in the hotels again. My guys (the hotel employers) were saying ?Don?t trust them?.?

In the general strike hotel after hotel was forced to close as staff failed to show up. It appeared the union had not called the hotel workers out, but Mr. Harvey said the HEB had subsequently proven there was outside orchestration in the manner the hotels had closed one by one in a regimented fashion.

The impact on tourism was immediate and crippling. Extra flights were laid on to take stranded tourists back home.

?Some people say that we have never recovered. It was a huge inconvenience to our guests. Afterwards we had to do a sales blitz in New York and Boston to say everything is back on line and we had repaired ourselves. Millions of dollars were lost.?

Five years after taking the lead role with the HEB he also became chief executive of the Bermuda Hotel Association (BHA).

The 1980s were ?exciting and challenging times? for labour relations between the hotels and hotel workers.

?The hotel employers would go into negotiations with the BIU but we always failed to reach an agreement and the Government would have to bring an arbitrator in,? said Mr. Harvey.

It was the early 1990s before things changed, and Mr. Harvey puts the watershed change for the better down to the then Home Affairs Minister Quinton Edness.

?To his credit he said to the HEB and the BIU ?you have to get your act together. This country can no longer afford your shenanigans?.?

Then, on a trip to a convention for employees unions in Geneva, an understanding was reached in the relaxed surroundings and away from the often pressure-cooker atmosphere of Bermuda.

?We were away from Bermuda and were talking man to man with a glass of wine. Mr. Edness was someone both groups respected and he caused certain things to happen,? he said.

One of the results was the intervention of expert trouble-shooting group The Monitor Company from Cambridge, Massachusetts, who got Mr. Harvey together with the likes of then BIU president Derrick Burgess and others in the hotel industry.

?We achieved a genuine trust between both organisations. We agreed about the principle of employees joining the union.?

The two organisations have since reached a series of three-year agreements during the past nine years and avoided outright conflict.

Mr. Harvey puts this down to the BIU leadership of Mr. Burgess, who stepped down from that role earlier this year.

?Since he was president there has not been a problem. We gave and share information. Before war breaks out we were on the phone and saying ?Hey, there?s something going on let?s go and get it sorted?. We were not undermining one another.?

The former BIU president came from a hotel management background, but also had qualities that made a working relationship between the two organisations smoother, said Mr. Harvey.

?I?ve respected him since day one. I admire his trustworthiness. He speaks the truth all the time and has respect for fairness. These are important qualities when you are talking about human relations and the other person has this as part of their traits.

?We have had disagreements but always managed to work them out and find a compromise.?

Following Mr. Burgess? retirement in March, former president of the ports workers? division Chris Furbert has taken charge.

Of the new BIU boss, Mr. Harvey said: ?We have had some dealings and I have found him to be of the same quality as Mr. Burgess. He is very committed to the BIU and I think he will be a sterling president. He is forthright and honest.

?We?ve met with him and he knows he has our resources to make sure things are resolved in an amicable way.?

Some friction has been created between hotels and the taxi business in recent weeks by hints that hotels might start shuttle services to ferry guests to and from the Airport to ensure they are not left stranded. The president of the Caribbean Hotel Association Berthia Parle arrived on a delayed flight in April for a region-wide conference in Bermuda only to find her pre-arranged transport was not at the Airport and neither were there any taxis waiting for her or the other passengers.

Whether the problem was primarily caused by a contracted Airport limousine failing to collect pre-arranged customers, or taxis not waiting for the delayed late evening flight, it promoted Mr. Harvey to suggest hotels be allowed to run their own Airport-to-hotel limousine or shuttle service as happens in other countries.

Tourism Minister Dr. Ewart Brown also acknowledged his concern about reports of such problems and said he would look at alternatives.

Elaborating, Mr. Harvey said hotels on the Island have never had a wish to be in the transport business, but equally when guests are unable to get to or from the Airport then action needs to be taken quickly to prevent damaging experiences putting guests off returning and of them regaling others with tales of woe when they return home.

?The whole package is flight, land transport to and from the Airport and then the hotel. You can?t have a package without those three components,? he explained.

A breakdown in the land transport element is the same as a hotel failing to provide a promised swimming pool facility, said Mr. Harvey adding: ?In my personal view, in recent times, there have been some instances where our guests have not been able to get transportation to and from the Airport and some have ended up missing their flight. That is not good, no matter how good their experience has been on the Island.

?If guests can?t get to the Airport because there is no taxi at the hotel that is something we have to watch. We need a co-ordinated effort and we have put something out there.

?I need to meet with Michael Ray (leader of the Bermuda Taxi Association) to see how best we make sure that no one is left behind.

?Maybe buses should go to the cruise ships at Dockyard rather than have the taxis go there. We need to get with Mr. Ray and the other taxi people. We need a report on how things are working, a meeting of minds and designing a programme where everyone wins.

The decision by Tourism Minister Dr. Brown to subsidise a short season of TNT Vacation flights offering North American passengers $49 each-way tickets to Bermuda attracted some flak because of the way the venture was put together at short notice with only limited consultation with tourism partners. The success of the flights, which ended on April 30, in bringing thousands of extra visitors to the Island has, in the words of Dr. Brown, ?proved that Bermuda can benefit when we get things done even if we are not perfect in the pursuit?.

Mr. Harvey agrees it would have been better had there been more pre-discussion beforehand, but acknowledges the drive of Dr. Brown has brought tangible and welcome changes to Bermuda?s tourism outlook and referred to the tale of JetBlue Airways supremo David Neeleman who said he was persuaded to bring his low cost airline to Bermuda after being pursued by the Tourism Minister to the point where Dr. Brown once showed up at his Miami office asking to see the JetBlue CEO even through he was in a board meeting.

?We have to applaud the Minister for that. I?ve had painful discussions with airlines but Dr. Brown stayed the course,? he said.

The introduction of JetBlue?s one-way flights from New York and Boston starting at $129 has resulted in established airlines also dropping ticket prices.

?There is a buzz being created out there. I?ve had business people saying they would not be coming out to Bermuda because it was $1,000 a ticket, they?d say ?I love Bermuda but not that much,? or they would be people who came here as college students, fell in love, had their honeymoon but now can?t afford to come back because it is $1,000 for a seat for their two year-old son.

?Dr. Brown and his team persevered and deserve full credit. The lowering of airfares has created a buzz and momentum. In New York and Boston people have started talking about what is going on here.?

Slick TV advertisements now being shown in North East US to promote Bermuda have impressed customers and given Bermuda a media presence again, said Mr. Harvey. He has spoken to travel agents in New York, Boston and Philadelphia who said they loved the Sex in the City-stylised ads because previously Bermuda has been portrayed as ultra conservative.

?But these things have changed and we have adjusted. I know people who are back on board. It?s all about having competitive pricing.?

There have been repeated calls from the Opposition for the Tourism portfolio to be dropped by the Government in favour of an independent tourism authority run by the various sector partners with some input from Government. Tourism Minister Dr. Brown has seen some merit in the concept but stated he does not believe it is the right moment for Bermuda to go down that path.

Mr. Harvey said: ?There needs to be a system where the private sector and the Government work in a cohesive way for the improvement of tourism. The current system works well when there?s full and frank discussions.

?When you have entities going out and doing their own thing and not letting the other one know then you need a tourism authority. In Bermuda it seems to be argued that only the private sector can get it right. That is not true. Dr. Brown is the proof that?s not true.?

Getting the right mix between cruise ship and the air arrivals is crucial for the health of the Island?s tourist trade and especially so for the hotels who lose out if too many visitors come by ship, said Mr. Harvey.

At the same time if hotels reach capacity they create sufficient demand for buses, taxis and ferries and then it becomes a balancing act to keep things moving when cruise ships add more visitors.

The Island?s hotels are nowhere near capacity yet, although signs are improving with the two Fairmont hotels reporting 90 percent occupancy projections for May, June and July.

What needs to be avoided though is a repeat of the crush of people that had even visitors complaining in the summer of 1987.

Mr. Harvey explained: ?We were people polluted. Tourists were complaining. No one could move and the shops were full.

?The focus needs to be on a comfortable carrying capacity as a community, otherwise you can nullify your best efforts. What is the point of having record numbers of tourists if the majority can?t get the quality of service or a taxi?

?Our challenge is to fill up what we have (bed spaces). It is only in recent months that we have started to talk about higher occupancy levels.?