satisfactory and mutually beneficial agreement for general cooperation. It must be possible in a small country where everyone benefits so greatly from tourism to achieve a tourism policy which is held to be above politics. Such a policy could be agreed without the public confusion and public rancour which has such potential to upset our visitors. We think such a policy would have as its aim the reasonable enjoyment of Bermuda by our visitors at a price which is just for visitors and Bermudians.

We think there is general agreement on the value of tourism to all Bermudians.

Therefore Bermudians should be able to agree on how to nurture and improve that value so that visitors will continue to visit.

Too often we do not do that. We tend to adjust the services which amount to a tourism industry to suit Bermudians and their convenience and comfort and forget that these facilities should be designed to suit the visitor.

We also tend to allow our own problems to be sorted out in public and to impact on the visitor. All sorts of Bermudian disputes, large and small, and some of them not connected to tourism, are settled in a noisy and disruptive public way, including strikes, which damage a visitor's stay. That also causes long-term damage by suggesting to potential visitors that they should stay away from a resort where their expensive holiday might be in danger of disruption. Too often we are careless in Bermuda and assume that all will be well no matter how Bermuda behaves. That, of course, is not true. A very prominent regular visitor told us this week that he cannot persuade his friends to come to Bermuda because they hear that Bermuda has strikes.

It is difficult to believe that there is any issue so great that it cannot be sorted out sensibly before it disrupts the industry which so greatly benefits us all. We think the problems arise because too often Bermudians think they can achieve maximum impact by turning tourism into a political issue. Somehow people think tourism can withstand abuse and still produce maximum cash. That is simply not true because when Bermuda takes its own political divisions and frustrations out on the visitors, those visitors begin to stay home. The visitors are not participants taking part in our political disputes but customers who spend money in return for a good time and a happy holiday in a beautiful and friendly place.

Tourism should be operated as a well run business between hoteliers who want to sell their rooms and other services and hotel workers who want to be fairly paid for their work. We think the whole industry would be better off if Government promoted Bermuda as a desirable destination through the Ministry of Tourism and the politicians let people in the industry get on with running the hotels. Instead whenever there is a labour dispute in almost any industry, tourism becomes that jumble of almost meaningless letters, BIU, UBP and PLP, when it ought to be BDA.

We think that too often politicians whip tourism hoping for short-term political gain or hoping to be seen as supporting the issue of the moment and thus do Bermuda long-term damage.