BERMUDIANS sent a powerful message to the Progressive Labour Party at the General Election of July 24. In the months preceding the poll I had consistently gone on record saying that the PLP's failed tourism record would indeed be the Achilles heel for Premier Jennifer Smith.

How true that turned out to be. She blindly backed David Allen, her first Tourism Minister, until his untimely death despite the fact his enthusiasm was not matched by any results. Quite the opposite in fact. Under Mr. Allen's stewardship the extravagantly priced, taxpayer-subsidised whimsies that he presented to the public and tourism industry stakeholders as policies caused the most precipitous drop-off in arrival figures in history. One hundred thousand lost arrivals between 1998 and 2003.

Then Jennifer Smith appointed Ren?e Webb as Mr. Allen's successor. Her arbitary, ill-considered and at times internationally embarrassing policies (Maui, Bermuda!) did nothing to stop the tourism freefall.

Ms Webb, like Jennifer Smith, came within a hair's breadth of losing her Parliamentary seat at the General Election - against a United Bermuda Party candidate not widely renowned for his charisma. And while Ms Smith may no longer be Premier, Ms Webb is still at the Tourism Ministry. Quite why is anyone's guess.

The election results in her constituency should be interpreted as a referendum on both Ms Webb's management style and Ministerial track record. She hardly received a wholehearted public endorsement on either score: a switch of just five votes would have seen Ms Webb join the same unemployment line her policies has helped to create among those who once depended on tourism for their livelihoods - taxi drivers, shop assistants, hotel employees, etc. It's a line that is growing by the day.

In the case of tourism, a Government department that co-ordinates both the international promotion and regulatory parameters of a private business, you can become Minister with absolutely no prior experience required. It is viewed as an entry-level position. It should be anything but. Inspired amateurism and good intentions are no longer qualifications for holding this Ministry.

When a Government has no plan and obstinately refuses to even acknowledge - let alone address - the issues that will turn tourism around one can expect nothing else except for the current depressing trend to continue.

What's so tragic is that we still have the infrastructure - shaken, smaller than it used to be, true, but still at this point viable. We still have world-class amenities. Perhaps most importantly of all, we still have Bermudians - natural hosts who treat our visitors as guests, not paying customers, who welcome people from all over the world to the island as if they were welcoming them into their own houses.

In recent years there has been an unofficial conspiracy of silence among the tourism industry's stakeholders. They are afraid to take a public position on what's ailing the industry. Many hoteliers are afraid to speak up and be counted - as many are on work permits and feel threatened if they do. Many restaurant owners will not speak out as they have virtually 90 per cent foreign staff and fear work permit problems as a consequence of going public.

However, the time has come to speak out. The time has come for all of Bermuda to speak out. The time has come to say enough is enough. The time has come for common sense - a common-sense revolution in tourism.

We have to address this issue not as blacks or whites, not as PLP or UBP, not as labour or management. But together - as Bermudians.The alternative is for Bermuda to go out of business as a vacation destination - like the 46 Bermuda hotels that have closed over the past few years.

Where is Bermuda now in terms of a vacation resort?

Bermuda is no longer on the tips of tongues in the travel world. Bermuda has a fraction of entertainment and nightlife it had 20 years ago. Bermuda has a tiny fraction of Bermudians working in the hotel/restaurant/entertainment industry it had 20 years ago.

Bermuda has dwindled from a seven-month season to a five-month season and in 2001 and 2003 we had a four-month season. Who can live on that? No wonder there are so few musicians or entertainers: you cannot survive on the proceeds of four months' work.

In fact, there is no such thing left in Bermuda as a professional musician or entertainer who can rely on that profession for their yearly livelihood. Bermuda hotels/bars/discos /nightclubs have closed one by one over the past 20 years.

Why?

The Bermuda Government has increasingly ignored tourism in favour of making international business the island's major industry. When the focus changed, so did the fortunes of tourism. Bermuda tourism was at one time the model which many destinations copied.

However, we have rested on very old laurels for 30 years, and like all things that get old, if you do not rejuvenate the product, change with the times . . . you die. Bermuda in many ways is already DEAD as a going tourism concern.

Hoteliers love to complain - to bitch and moan - about cruise ships and get really twisted at the thought of mega-ships. But the reality is that the cruise lines have continually upgraded themselves and mega-ships are going to become the industry standard: they are literally the shape of things to come in that industry. They have great facilities, great entertainment, great prices and, of course, great casinos . . .

Cruise ships keep what is left of the Bermuda water tour operators in business. Now that is even in question with the shocking news that Carnival steamed out of Bermuda for good and will not be returning in 2004. What a blow for the Dockyard shopkeepers and Raymond Lambert's Windjammer Watersports Centre. What a blow for the taxi drivers and the restaurants and the other satellite industries that benefited from the Carnival visits.

The fact of the matter is that Bermuda's Government has never spent a dime to market cruise ships . . . they keep coming, and have done so for as long as we can all remember. As many businesses now openly tell you: "Thank God for the cruise ships."

Without them - without the passengers they bring and the money they inject into the Bermuda economy - many, many more tourism-dependent businesses would have gone the way of all flesh in the last few years.

So why are we still flogging a horse in the unlovely form of the Tourism Ministry? A horse that, if it isn't dead already, is clearly in grave condition and hooked up to life support? Why throw $35 million a year at Tourism to promote a destination that is also dying by the inch - a destination which quite frankly isn't exciting any more? Today's tourists are travelling to other destinations that offer fun, entertainment, casinos, etc.

If we do not change - and change soon - we may as well use that $35 million as toilet paper. We are simply wasting our money at the present time.

To turn tourism around we have to recognise that we can no longer continue with business as usual. Many a hotelier here tells me that even with a good high season, their properties have a hard time making a nickel as the operating costs here are so high.

Many cannot afford decent entertainment. No one even has a nightclub any more. Indeed most hotels resemble well-appointed undertakers' parlours on many an evening and are just as gloomy. There is "nada" to do.

Bermuda must address issues such as gaming and resort casinos or I predict that in another five years there will be no industry left to save.

Holiday-makers want fun, they want entertainment . . . that's what we Bermudians want when we go on holiday. Just ask C Travel which destination is "off the hook" for Bermudians as a holiday destination . . . Las Vegas!

We need to look at the practicalities of encouraging full-blown but well-operated casino resorts at Morgan's Point and the old Club Med property. We need to consider opening a small and exclusive hotel/casino in the city. We need to study the economic ramifications, the trickle-down effect, the number of new satellite industries and jobs that would be created by embracing the concept of upmarket gaming resorts.

Think about the ramifications.

We could afford to pay for top-name entertainers from the Caribbean to come here to provide the calypso/reggae soundtrack that tourists expect to enjoy during an island vacation while simultaneously resuscitating the careers of Bermuda entertainers.

We could revolutionise transportation on the island, resuscitating the beleaguered taxi industry while simultaneously considering other options: small tourist car rentals and hotel limo services, for instance. As long as the taxis had all the work they could manage there would be no friction in terms of introducing additional transportation options.

But first of all, Government has to open Bermuda up to the very real options that exist in terms of remaking the tourism industry. Government must also make Bermuda a "friendly place" to invest in tourism - with tax breaks and incentives in place for entrepreneurs willing to pump untold millions of dollars into new properties and new businesses.

I ask all Bermudians to pay close attention to the future of Bermuda tourism. I am a loyal Bermudian: I only want what is best for our country. A "New" Bermuda boasting an exciting new tourism product would encourage Bermudians back into the industry they are former past masters at: it would encourage Bermudians to not only work in exciting new resorts but to open new satellite companies that would benefit from a new flood of well-heeled visitors.

I can see the benefits, the almost limitless possibilities. Can you? And can the Government?