guests has not been ruled out by top-level tourism officials who are currently seeking ways of reducing crime against visitors, Tourism Minister the Hon.

C.V. (Jim) Woolridge said yesterday.

The possibility of crime advisories as they are used in other holiday destinations comes on the heels of a general increase in the number of tourist-related crimes in Bermuda and the robbery of a visiting couple on the Railway Trail in particular.

Mr. and Mrs. I.S. Mackenzie, regular visitors to the Island who were robbed at knifepoint as the walked along the trail last year, were quoted in Saturday's Royal Gazette as saying they would have welcomed a warning from Tourism "as sensible advice for our own safety''.

They claimed they were "unprepared and shocked'' by the robbery because they had been given no indication that the trail might pose a danger.

Yesterday, Mr. Woolridge said advisories might be beneficial in such cases, though he made it clear that they were not his preferred choice for dealing with visitor crime. "They can be misleading,'' he told The Royal Gazette .

"While some people, like this couple, might welcome a warning, others might be frightened by it.'' He added: "I don't want to push the panic button, to frighten people unduly.'' If visitor warnings were to be adopted by Government, Mr. Woolridge said he would like to see them worded in the manner of "another'' holiday island's.

Those, he said, advised tourists to be on the alert, avoid lonely areas and never leave belongings unattended.

"That kind of thing would be all right,'' Mr. Woolridge said.

According to a local hotelier, however, such vagaries are precisely why Government should not be issuing crime warnings.

Mr. David Boyd, who is managing director of the Sonesta Beach Hotel, told The Royal Gazette he would prefer to have individual properties give out their own warnings.

"I don't understand how you could issue a blanket statement about the particular needs of a particular property,'' he said. "If there are specific concerns in a specific area, it should be a management responsibility. They're the ones who can best deal with it.'' Added Mr. Boyd: "I think a Government advisory would be so generic as to be ineffective.'' Even so, more and more hoteliers are looking to Government to provide some sort of permanent solution.

Last week, Cambridge Beaches managing director the Hon. Mike Winfield called on the Premier to appoint a special Cabinet committee on tourist-related crimes.

"I think this is maybe one of the most serious situations facing Bermuda today,'' he told The Royal Gazette . Mr. Winfield, a former Government senator, is one of the few hoteliers on the Island to provide his guests with local crime advisories.

Yesterday, however, Mr. Woolridge downplayed the suggestion that crime against tourists was out of hand, although he did say that even the perception of a lack of safety could harm Bermuda's still favourable reputation.

"We must be careful not to make a mountain out of a molehill, but we must also be careful not to ignore the warning signals,'' he said, adding: "I am deeply concerned because the whole thrust of our promotion (overseas) has been Bermuda as a safe destination.''