"The lure of other tourist destinations is forcing firms to come up with new ways of attracting the growing minority of big spenders who like to travel between continents.'' "Attracting growth ......means encouraging them to spend more by offering new products and higher quality.'' "Though tourist `raw material' is impressive enough......much of its infrastructure, -hotels, airports - is outclassed by foreign regions.'' "Falling air fares have encouraged visitors to visit more exotic locations.'' "Thanks to cheaper labour, guests in other resorts are pampered by battalions of uniformed staff, a heady change from a solitary, surly chambermaid.'' "Now that tourists take several holidays a year they want variety. There is a move towards holidays based around an activity such as golf or cooking.'' ".....the island urgently needs to improve its existing hotels, rather than build new ones, if its tourist industry is to remain profitable as well as environmentally sustainable.'' "Sometimes the trouble is a bolshie immigration officer.....a shabby airport.....perennial strikes.......parking and traffic jams.......'' Do you think this was all written about Bermuda? It might have been but it is a series of loose quotes from a recent article in The Economist about European tourism. The introduction to the story is even more relevant to Bermuda. It says, "Tourism is one of the few businesses that Europeans like to think they are good at. The next decade will put them to the test.'' But there are other aspects to the article. At least Europeans like to think they are good at tourism and that certainly was once the case in Bermuda. In recent years Bermudians have been so sure of their tourist industry that they have taken it for granted. Witness to that is the fact that Government has been increasing its spending and its own salaries but has not increased tourism's advertising budget even in tough times.

We think many Bermudians are no longer certain that they want to be involved in a service industry. Many see working in the industry as servitude. Some see tourism, no matter how lucrative, as disruptive and inconvenient.

We think these Bermudian attitudes make it hard to sustain Bermuda's tourism industry. It is difficult to tell how much attitude has contributed to the neglect tourism has suffered in recent years but it has clearly played a large part. Basically tourism has trucked along but it has suffered from a lack of enthusiasm and a lack of care from both the general Government and the public.

Government has been content to operate Bermuda to suit Bermudians and visitors have had to take it or leave it. Too many left it.