August 29, 2012Dear Sir,I have just read the exchange of correspondence between some past visitors to Bermuda and their usual agent, Fiona Campbell. They were telling her that they’ve decided not to come there next Spring. I too have been following the points of view expressed in recent weeks in the online Royal Gazette, about the reasons for some decline in the number of visitors, and I’ve come to this conclusion. It is not a matter of the political situation on the Island. That is a facet of life that the visitor does not see and does not take much interest in. So Ms Campbell’s latching on to local politics and the usual accusations that fly between political parties, especially during the lead-up to elections, as a salient reason for her clients not coming, is simplistic and naive. And I notice she didn’t miss the chance to do her own bashing of the ruling Party!But, let’s get real. It’s the appalling rise in the incidence of serious crime there. If I were not myself familiar with Bermuda and did not have the connection there of extended family to visit, and all I had to go on was what I read in the daily newspaper, I too would choose to spend the money I saved for a vacation elsewhere. The accounts of local crime frightens me just reading them. The upswing in the use of guns, knives and machetes just sounds so vicious! There’s some crime against tourists as well, though, thank God, only of the purse-snatching variety. There are also the comments I’ve read on the surliness and lack of work ethic on the part of, admittedly, some service people in contact with tourists; but even a small number of such workers can damage the overall reputation of a tourist destination.And let’s not talk about the number of cars on the roads, to the point where it would be foolhardy for a tourist today to risk his/her life on the roads on a rented moped ... especially having to remember to stay on the “wrong” side of the road! Bermuda has passed through several years of paying more attention to its more recently gained status as a financial and reinsurance hub; and I’ve gotten the impression on visits over the years, that there was a feeling the Island had somehow gone beyond needing the tourism dollars! As if it had now “grown up”. So it stopped nurturing the tourist trade which was its bread and butter for so many years. I have no quick fix to offer for the overall tourist situation. I just wished to point out that one ought to be honest about the real reasons for the downturn. The problem is deeper than the perceived negligence, if any, of any ruling political party!YD MILLINGTONLongueuil, Quebec