Students are not interested in working in tourism, despite new hotels coming to the Island and repeated plugs by the Premier.

A study carried out at last year's Bermuda College Career Fair revealed that 53 percent of students aged between 13 and 17 had "absolutely no interest in careers in tourism", according to a release from consulting firm Profiles of Bermuda.

Of the 457 youngsters surveyed, 23.9 percent said they were put off by personal experience in the industry.

Nearly a fifth of students (16.1 percent) said they were not interested in a hospitality career because of the weekend and evening work required and 13.9 percent of them said their parents had advised them against it.

And their lack of interest in tourism was not an indication of apathy over their future ¿ 79 percent said they knew exactly which career they wanted to pursue.

Health was the most popular field with 10.5 percent of students opting for that career path, while 10.2 percent want to go into banking, 9.4 percent plan to enter the legal field and 9.1 percent see themselves as educators.

Only 6.9 percent or 31 students of the 400-plus polled said they wanted to enter the hospitality and tourism industry. But tourism ranked ahead of international business which saw only 30 students (6.6 percent) say they planned to work in the industry when they were adults.

International business is one of the Island's largest employers. Meanwhile construction, the Island's fastest growing industry, was even less appealing to students with only 15 kids opting for a career in the field. Premier Ewart Brown, who is also Minister of Tourism, did not comment on how these figures could affect the tourism industry, which is expected to see increased demand for local employees with new hotels coming to the Island, by press time.

But in May at the National Youth Tourism Day, which was created to heighten awareness about the various jobs available in the industry and market careers in tourism to students, Dr. Brown said it was very important that Bermudians participated in Tourism.

"Tourism is turning around," he told hundreds of students at the event. "You should know that there is not one hotel room available in Bermuda right now ¿ they're all booked up."

"What happens when the hotels are full? People have jobs, people who are entertainers get an opportunity to work, as well as hotel engineers and accountants.

"But, we cannot keep turning people away and we can't keep saying 'I know you want to come to Bermuda, but we don't have any beds'. It makes sense to build more hotels. Over the next five years there will be no fewer than five new hotels in this country.

"And, if you want to see Bermudians, running and working in those hotels, you have to prepare yourself now.

"Hotels need lawyers, accountants, doctors, nurses, engineers and everybody from the back door to the top and bottom of every hotel. When people come to see our beautiful country, they would like to see Bermudians."