These days when the international media refer to Bermuda as a “treasure isle”, this is usually unsubtle — and singularly unhelpful — code for the activities of our offshore financial services sector.

So it was refreshing to find BBC 4 had devoted this week most of an episode of its long-running Britain’s Treasure Islands series to local allures other than our low-tax regime.

Focusing primarily on Bermuda’s wildlife, history and cultural heritage, the popular documentary programme, which profiles all of the remaining UK Overseas Territories, showcased the island to tremendous advantage.

The Bermuda episode aired on Sunday to good ratings and will enjoy a long afterlife online and on satellite television, bringing our cultural and natural charms to a broad worldwide audience.

A few years ago, it became fashionable to deride the island’s tourism marketing efforts as archaic, peddling increasingly stale images of a staid and stuffy Bermuda to the point all meaning and impact had been wrung from them.

There was certainly some truth to this.

Bermuda, it was said, was becoming a product without a market, its traditional visitor base literally dying off with no new travel demographic emerging to fill the vacuum — and the now-empty hotel beds.

Some ill-conceived and remarkably unconvincing efforts were made to break completely with the past and rebrand and reposition Bermuda as a stylish and uber-hip island resort, a sort of North Atlantic answer to St Barts.

Since the prosaic reality could never hope to correspond with the marketing gloss, these attempts to dress us in chic but ill-fitting, borrowed robes predictably enough came to naught.

But now, under the guidance of the Bermuda Tourism Authority, the island is shaking off its fusty image with marketing initiatives that appealingly blend fresh strategies with the traditional spirit of the place.

Bermuda is slowly being transformed into a destination that is as attractive to sophisticated younger travellers as it is to their greying elders, thanks in part to events such as the forthcoming America’s Cup and new infrastructure investment in our hospitality sector.

The revitalisation of Bermuda’s tourist product now under way is hugely welcome after years of stagnation — but just rebuilding it does not guarantee that “they will come”.

The new attractions and amenities must be sold to the high-end 30 to 45-year-old demographic that Bermuda is attempting to woo.

And even our more well-established allures have to be repackaged and reintroduced to this key market segment, using the tools, techniques and language that will most effectively appeal to them. In marketing circles, Bermuda is what’s known as a heritage product: long-established and well known, a little self-consciously old-fashioned, even, and much the same as it has ever been.

But as tastes and travel options evolve, to retain its enviable standing in a crowded and increasingly competitive global marketplace, Bermuda’s brand and brand packaging must shift with the times.

That’s why exposure of the kind provided by the BBC this week is so vital to our marketing efforts.

The BTA, which helped to facilitate the Treasure Islands segment, understood the enormous value of Bermuda being featured on a programme that would present us as simultaneously contemporary and steeped in tradition, highlighting our present-day reality as well as our rich natural and man-made heritage.

Shows such as Treasure Islands raise awareness of and create interest in Bermuda among potential new visitors by immediately distinguishing us from other resorts, spotlighting unrivalled natural and cultural components unavailable in destinations that are simply selling sun and surf.

They also help to sustain interest in Bermuda among those already familiar with the island: in advertising parlance, they reinforce a sense of brand loyalty among existing customers by reminding them of what sets Bermuda apart.

Enhanced publicity for the island and a heightened media profile are not ends unto themselves, of course. It is to be hoped that these programmes end up persuading more than a few viewers to book trips here and to discover for themselves why Bermuda should indeed be considered a treasure island.