Dear Sir,

It is the middle of August and I am reading your headline news post stating “Tourism figures ‛pretty sombre’”. Traditionally this would be your high season and a very busy time in Bermuda. I read the article and I have to ask the Bermuda Tourism Authority chief executive: “Do you know you have no direct flights to Bermuda from Philadelphia right now?”

You could not make it more difficult to get to Bermuda right now, period. I have been travelling to Bermuda every year since 1986, and now find it such a challenge to get there I have decided to travel elsewhere. And once you disrupt that pattern of the habitual Bermuda traveller, you will struggle to get that back.

So, to those at the BTA, I say put on your common sense hat. You make it difficult to get there, the costs to stay have skyrocketed and even selection of hotels has narrowed ... so you have written the business plan that causes your returning visitors to exit the stage.

Put on your commonsense hat and get back to a way of getting there easier — and maybe those that love your island and people will look past the exorbitant prices and return again.

DAVE BUSBY

West Chester, Pennsylvania