A holidaymaker who was literally and figuratively left out in the cold after arriving on the Island without hotel reservations urged the Department of Tourism to reestablish the Visitor's Service Bureau desk at the Airport.

And Tourism Minister David Allen said he planned to meet with Transport Minister Ewart Brown today to begin talks about upgrading the Airport welcome -- including reinstituting the service desk and providing music in the welcome area.

The distraught visitor who spoke with The Royal Gazette , Monique Salmon, is a French national who flew to Bermuda from Miami via Atlanta.

Ms Salmon said when she first visited Bermuda in 1994, she arrived without hotel reservations and simply received assistance from a representative at the tourism desk.

"It's easy to put a (hotel) address on the (immigration) form -- it doesn't matter if you've really got a booking there,'' she said.

As a resident of France, Ms Salmon claimed that it was very difficult to obtain tourist information about Bermuda -- and said it was necessary to send away to England for it.

But when Ms Salmon arrived on the Island last week without reservations expecting to receive help from tourism reps, she was shocked to discover that the Bureau no longer operated a desk at the Airport. After calling several hotels on her own, she was able to secure lodgings at the Mazarine By The Sea guest house.

But Ms Salmon was angry that visitors arriving on to the Island for the first time were not met by a tourism representative to help with any difficulties they might encounter.

"I don't know whether there was no one there because it was five o'clock -- but all the Caribbean islands have a tourist board desk open until the last flight comes in.

"You need someone there for assistance. Imagine if there were any Airport delays where people would have to stay overnight -- you cannot have 200 people sitting in the Airport.

"But when I arrived there was no information -- not even a magazine or those little brochures. "When I was here before, they had the tourism office -- why is that service no longer provided, especially in the low season? Thank God I did not come in on a night flight.

"You need someone who knows exactly what's going on...only the tourist board knows the capacity of the different hotels,'' she said.

"Someone at the Airport told me that because the Government changed, now some things could expect to be done differently.

"But this thing about the Government is not something I want to get into -- I just want to have a bed when I get (to the Island).'' Ms Salmon said that on some of the other islands she visited, taxi drivers have information about specific hotels because they get a commission from the hotel where they take the tourists. "Well, now I have a few brochures and I'll keep them in case anyone I know in France needs it, I'll pass them on,'' she added.

Mr. Allen said reestablishing the visitor's desk was something he had long spoken about as Shadow Tourism Minister.

And he said he was in the process of setting up several new initiatives to "make our visitors feel like VIPs''. Mr. Allen said it was "not acceptable'' for visitors to arrive on the Island without being greeted and given whatever information they need.

"There has to be a proactive, hands-on relationship with our visitors...we hope to make it a very palatable experience for visitors and for Bermudian employees,'' he said.

Mr. Allen said he was looking at corporate sponsorships and working with the private sector to help fund some of the new initiatives.

AIRPORT FLY