Tourism Minister David Allen has lowered his sights for the recovery of visitors to the Island.

The Minister revealed yesterday he had dropped his previous estimation of arrival numbers by nearly half as he focused his efforts on attracting less tourists but spending more.

He now sees a total number of visitors for Bermuda at around 600,000 a year, with 400,000 of that number air arrivals, as a more realistic goal for the ailing industry.

The figures contrast sharply to aims he set out in May this year in his department's North American marketing plan. Then, he said he wanted 80,000 more air visitors over the next four years.

That would have pushed last year's air number of 354,026 to 434,000 -- and a total of visitors, assuming cruise passengers did not increase, to nearly 630,000 vacationers.

The new figures would add around 46,000 air passengers and around 8,000 cruise passengers to bring sea-borne arrivals up to 200,000 -- a ratio of two-thirds to one third.

Mr. Allen, speaking to European tour operators, said he did not want to go back to the heyday of Bermuda tourism when numbers hit around 610,000, in 1980.

"Bermuda did drift over the last two decades and go towards numbers, more mass market than in the past,'' he said. "We are now re-positioning ourselves.

"Bermuda cannot accommodate unlimited numbers of visitors. We are positioning towards discerning visitors looking for a more enriching experience.'' The Minister added that there had been too much pre-occupation with focusing simply on the numbers of visitors, rather than the money they generated in the economy.

Mike Winfield, who told the dozen tour operators from Italy, Germany, Austria and the UK about the private/public sector conduit alliance, concurred.

He said: "It is wrong for us to be attempting to attract everybody.

"We need to be very careful about the product that is Bermuda.'' The Cambridge Beaches president said it was important that hoteliers realised the potential of the European business -- guests who spend more and stay longer.

Ian Parker, director of Bermuda Tourism in Europe, added that business from Europe had increased, with more arrivals and a rise in the number of bed nights sold -- from ten percent to 17 percent.

And he said concerns over price would not be an issue if the services and products were worthy of their value.

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