ever in the country.

Minister David Allen and Tourism officials will join several Island hoteliers as they stage a three-day promotional event in Ontario.

Top of the agenda will be attempts at improving declining visitor numbers and generating positive publicity about Bermuda.

Following on from a well-received US east coast roadshow in April, travel and tour agents will be treated to Island entertainment and food, and a progress report on the new Bermuda tourism product.

The event comes before the November-to-March period, which traditionally sees more than half the Island's 33,000 Canadian vacationers.

Two shows will be staged in Toronto, one at the city centre Royal York hotel and the other at the western side of the city.

Then the entourage, which is expected to number several dozen, will move to the nation's capital, Ottawa, for the final show at the renowned Chateau Laurier hotel.

Tourism director Gary Phillips said the department realised it had a job on its hands with numbers remaining static over the last decade and decreasing for the most part of the last year.

But he said it was still important to reach out to the market, however it was performing.

"When you are trying to determine the return on an investment, you can't afford not to talk to people,'' Mr. Phillips said, "if you don't then someone else will. They will soon forget you are even on the menu of choices.

"In today's environment, maintaining market share and awareness levels is just as much of a challenge as trying to generate incremental business.

"The object of the roadshow is to put Bermuda back on the map in Canada.'' Canadian visitor numbers have fallen nearly every month over the last year, and during 1998 they decreased overall to 33,629 people.

This year according to the statistics received so far from the Department of Tourism, only May and August saw an increase in numbers.

Previously, Tourism officials blamed a weak Canadian economy and limited air service to the Island for the disappointing figures.

But domestic matters such as the bad publicity surrounding the on-going Rebecca Middleton murder case and the controversy over the possible appointment of Saul Froomkin as Honorary Consul have not helped.

Mr. Phillips has said he would like to see more air service, especially from the Maritimes which currently has a once weekly flight from Halifax, from February to September.

Tourism are also aware of the drawback of having just one daily flight -- from Toronto.

Although most of the visitors come from the Ontario region, officials concede it is hard to persuade Canadians to take an extra flight to Bermuda when they can fly direct to the Caribbean or Florida.

But Air Canada have poured cold water on the possibility of any extra flights, saying that the current business does not support the idea of more service to the Island.