history, wildlife and art.

Tourism officials are sending out a special brochure designed to encourage group visits with a "heritage'' theme.

The groups would get tailor-made trips depending on their interests. Lectures, visits to private homes or special museum tours could be laid on for them.

Banquets and parties could also be arranged in forts and other historic buildings.

About 30,000 copies of the colourful "natural and cultural heritage guide'' have been printed by the Tourism Department.

It shows an old postcard painting of a Bermudian home, surrounded by pressed local flowers.

Outlines of the Island's military history, environment and "multicultural patchwork'' are given.

A list of Bermuda's natural and cultural attractions has been compiled by Ms Connie Dey at the National Trust.

She would help group leaders set up their trips, said assistant Tourism director Mr. Peter Smith.

An example of a tour might be a party of supporters from the Chicago Museum, he said.

Societies, specialist travel agents and cultural tour operators would also be interested.

Putting together a way of dealing with such groups had taken time. But he expected the first group using the scheme to arrive this fall.

"We delayed aggressively promoting this kind of thing until we were confident that the elements were in place.'' Potential groups would still have to be carefully targeted, he said. "We don't want to run the risk of creating more demand than we can deal with.'' Mr. Smith warned that cultural tourism, although a worldwide trend, could not solve the tourism industry's problems on its own.

"This is not going to generate enormous numbers of visitors. These groups are by and large small, from 20 to 45 people, and they require a lot of work.

"It will be one of the answers, but by itself it will not be an answer.''