Tourists are being wooed to come to Bermuda with the promise of a $300 Visa gift card to spend at local bars, shops, restaurants and hotels.

Those taking part in a special promotion can look forward to being handed a cash card with $300 stored on it as they arrive at their hotel. After that they are free to go out and spent the money on the Island.

The offer is being paid for jointly by the Department of Tourism and the hotels and is a new idea aimed at boosting visitor numbers once the peak summer months are over.

It is part of a promotion by one of the leading Internet vacation booking companies, which has been collaborating with the Bermuda Hotel Association, the Alliance for Tourism and the the Tourism Ministry.

A return flight from New York to Bermuda and a four-night stay at the Wyndham Resort and Spa works out at $574 per person for those who take full advantage of all the discounts and the Visa card gift when they book through CheapCaribbean.com during August and take their holiday before the end of the year.

Bermuda has been chosen by the Philadelphia-based Internet company as the first destination to be given a month-long intensive promotion.

It is offering up to 75 percent off stays at ?four and five star resorts?, with packages involving a number of hotels including the Wyndham, the Fairmont Hamilton Princess and Fairmont Southampton, Coco Reef, Grotto Bay, Harmony Club.

Explaining the concept of the $300 Visa gift card, Susan Black, representing CheapCaribbean.com, said: ?We knew Bermuda was working on the $300 Visa promotion and together with the Fairmont and Wyndham hotels we knew we would get integrated rates.

?The Government and hotels came in with the $300 added value card that can be used anywhere that accepts Visa in Bermuda. We have added our $50 booking discount.

?When visitors check in they are given the Visa card with the $300 stored on it and are able to use that while they are in Bermuda. It is a brilliant idea. It encourages people to come and they spend the money at restaurants and stores and that helps the local economy. It is a nice psychological boost.?

Ms Black, chief marketing officer at the internet company?s parent company Comm Group, said there had been a productive relationship with Tourism Minister Dr. Ewart Brown and the Department of Tourism?s New York Office.

Larry Magor, general manager at the Wyndham Hotel, said the Visa card idea was being paid for by the hotels and the Tourism Ministry, and explained: ?Visitors are being enticed to come to the Island. ?It is a very generous marketing scheme to encourage them to spend money in Bermuda. It is going to bring more business to the retailers and the bars, not just the hotels. We wanted everyone to have a share.?

Tourism Minister Dr. Ewart Brown said: ?This is part of one of many promotional efforts we are making to encourage people to come. People need all the financial incentives they can get to reverse Bermuda?s tourism situation.?

Both the Wyndham and the Hamilton Southampton are featured deals by CheapCaribbean.com, which is offering a $50 discount off booking fees as an additional sweetener to encourage visitors to book up and come to Bermuda as part of its ?Celebrate Bermuda Month?.

Jim Hobbs, president and founder of CheapCaribbean.com, said: ?By introducing Bermuda month in August, we are able to negotiate the most attractive Bermuda deals good for travel through December.

?Customers will enjoy the lowest prices on four and five star Bermuda properties and we are ?sweetening? their deals by adding a $50 discount on all of our Bermuda packages booked during August.?

CheapCaribbean.com was set up in 2000 and last year handled more than 250,000 bookings.

This is the first time the company has dedicated a promotion and marketing drive to a single destination aimed at getting as many people as possible to choose the Island. Ms Black said the company was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in an all-out marketing push for Bermuda during August. She added: ?We are really pushing hard to get that interest and want to reward people for booking Bermuda during the Fall season.?

The latest drive to increase hotel bookings comes less than a week after Tourism Minister Dr. Ewart Brown reported Bermuda?s best ever three-month visitor figures for the months of April, May and June with a reported 228,781 visitors arriving.