One day Edward Trippe might very well be credited with having a hand in the revitalisation of Bermuda's tourism industry. As president of Tucker's Point Club he introduced fractional ownership to the island. The concept, which allows visitors to purchase shares in luxurious holiday accommodation, has subsequently been imitated by other resorts on the island. Mr. Trippe is also the driving force behind the Tucker's Point Hotel & Spa. When it opens in 2008 it will stand as the first luxury hotel built on the island in 35 years.

It seems hospitality management runs in Mr. Trippe's blood. His father Juan, was founder and chairman of Pan American World Airways, a company which pioneered trans-ocean and intercontinental flying for 60 years.

Pan Am began in 1927 with a single-engine aircraft which travelled between Key West and Havana. The company collapsed in 1991, leaving a tremendous legacy of routes established and new aircraft launched.

"Pan Am started flying to Bermuda back in the 1930s but my mother's parents actually travelled to Bermuda around the turn of the century, on the steamships. So they knew Bermuda well and when the early clippers started to fly to Europe, Pan Am used Bermuda as a stepping stone. My father used to come here frequently."

The company's push for dominance was chronicled - inaccurately according to Mr. Trippe - in the Hollywood blockbuster . Alec Baldwin was cast in the role of his father in the film, which detailed businessman Howard Hughes' descent into madness.

" was not a very accurate portrayal of my father. It wasn't accurate at all of my father. It wasn't, frankly, very accurate of Howard Hughes. It was pure fiction - as Hollywood can do very well. The character that Alec Baldwin played was nothing like my father. He never swore. He was never a very pushy person. And Howard Hughes, during all the periods they met, was a very sane individual. So the movie was interesting, but not very accurate."

Mr. Trippe said his father's efforts had succeeded in advancing commercial aviation, although such accomplishments had been largely ignored by the film.

"There were a number of early flying boats. The first was the Martin S130 ? that was, I think, the beginning of it. But the largest one, the biggest one which is the most famous, is the Yankee Clipper. It's a Boeing 314. It was a grand old ship of the air ? very luxurious. It accommodated about 35 or 40 people in separate cabins. It had smoking rooms, dining rooms, white table cloths with china and crystal. The captain would come down and have dinner with the passengers.

"Of course these were very long flights so it had to be somewhat comfortable. The flight across the Pacific, from San Francisco to Honolulu, could be up to 20 hours. There were shorter hops but many of them were 10 hours or more. So it had to be comfortable. Tourism travel in the 1920s was really for the very wealthy. One of dad's real contributions to aviation was bringing travel to the common man. He introduced the tourist fare in the 1950s which brought the price of air travel down, so that it became a very affordable commodity for most people."

The first Pan Am Clipper flew to Bermuda in 1937 before travelling on to the Azores and Europe. The stop soon became a regular one as the company continued to expand its routes.

"Years after the war, Bermuda became a place where Pan Am took possession of their equipment. They had to find an offshore location or they would have had to pay US taxes, so they always took possession of a new aircraft outside the United States. Bermuda seemed to be the place where it was most convenient ? at least it was the place where senior executives of Pan Am used to like to come take delivery of the aircraft."

The executives' love of the island was such that many built homes here and became part of the local community, he added.

"It was in the 1940s when I first began to come down here on Pan Am planes. I became very fond of Bermuda. We stayed at Pink Beach initially, and then we owned a house which was actually on the old second hole of the Castle Harbour Golf Course. So I grew up as a youngster, very familiar with Castle Harbour and the land around Castle Harbour and the hotel and everything that today is Tucker's Point."

As president of Tucker's Point Club, Mr. Trippe is responsible for the overall management and development of the $350 million resort, private club and residential community.

He boasts more than 25 years of industry experience, having served as a senior executive with InterContinental Hotels Corporation. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Yale University and a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard University.

He followed his father's footsteps briefly, before turning to his own pursuits.

"I graduated from Harvard Business School in 1966 and immediately went to Saigon, Vietnam, as the Pan American government traffic manager ? essentially I was under military contract. But I left Pan Am about two years later and joined the InterContinental Hotels corporation.

"Over the years I was involved, sort of peripherally, with Castle Harbour. I watched it in its heyday. It began to slip and then Marriott brought it back and it began to slip again. I watched it and I watched the land for a long period of time, and when my father passed away in the 80s, my brother and I took a more active role in the leadership of Bermuda Properties and tried to figure out a way to bring new life into the property.

"I have wonderful memories of the times I spent in Bermuda while growing up. I remember spending days out with Austin Talbot fishing. He was, I guess, the oldest of the Talbot brothers who were all fabulous and who were friends. I remember learning to play golf with Archie Compton at Mid-Ocean. I remember bicycling. Nobody bicycles around Bermuda for pleasure anymore and it's one of the things we want to bring back. We want to bring bicycles to Tucker's Point ? a way for people to move around the resort, to go to the beach ? brightly coloured bicycles that will be fun to drive around. That's my image of what Bermuda used to be and it's an image that I believe still works."