ferry service centres around Bermudians being inconvenienced in getting to Cup Match. Once again we are selfishly suiting ourselves when, we think, the greatest concern should be for visitors who are being inconvenienced and having their holidays disrupted.

We are operating a high class tourist resort yet too often we gear Bermuda to suit ourselves and not to meet the needs of our visitors. It is true that in recent years retail merchants have gone a long way towards providing visitors with more convenient shopping hours. Yet we still arrange such things as transportation to suit ourselves. There should be an understanding that the visitors maintain the extraordinary standard of living Bermudians enjoy and therefore their needs should be met first.

Some of this problem stems from Government which seeks votes by keeping Bermudians happy. But the attitude spreads to the people who too often these days look on visitors as something of a nuisance. "I can't be bothered'' seems sometimes to be the approach we take to visitors. That approach, often by people directly involved in the visitor sector, fails to recognise that without visitors we would be a good deal more than bothered.

It may be that after years and years in the tourist business Bermudians are beginning to look down on visitors. We think there are a fair number of Bermudians who no longer want to make the effort necessary to provide good and comfortable vacations.

Some of this comes about because we have failed to demonstrate to Bermudians how the visitor's dollar gets into their pockets. There are many people who do not understand that the visitors provide their lifestyle.

Visitors pay for their homes, their trips, their children's education and even their illicit drugs. Yet they often think that the visitor has nothing to do with them and they need not be bothered.

There was a time when Bermudians took pride in the enjoyment visitors found in Bermuda and went out of their way to be friendly and helpful. Many still do that but too many do not. Far too often visitors complain about the way they are treated. It is easy to blame tourism's problems on high prices and out-of-line air fares but that is not the whole problem. Some of the problem stems from the attitude of Bermudians themselves.

As we have seen in recent years visitors do not have to come here. There are plenty of other beautiful places to holiday. It may be that we have to go through a very bad period so that we learn to look after our visitors and our tourist industry.

Right now there are many people trying to sort out the problems but we still detect a lack of enthusiasm and a lack determination on the part of Bermudians to get our visitors back. All the advertising and all the reports in the world will amount to nothing as visitors do not feel welcome in Bermuda.