Hoteliers and other business people who rely on group tourism, learned first hand yesterday how the Department of Tourism is seeking to re-build group business with a specific campaign.

The briefings came as hoteliers, retailers and many others in the business community are increasingly anxious over tourism's under-achievement.

Although the industry has, for years, talked up the potential in group business, Bermuda has actually lost its market share. A specific scheme has had to be devised to get it back.

Key players in the Department of Tourism effort are the public relations firm, Porter Novelli, advertising agency DDB Needham Worldwide and all those businesses in Bermuda that derive direct revenue from group business.

They include hotels, retail outlets, tour boats, destination management consultants, airlines and a host of others.

The focus on group business is one way Tourism officials hope they can reverse an unsatisfactory trend in the overall tourism figures.

While group business is only responsible for 14 percent of total arrivals, it represents 40 percent of hotel bed nights.

Some 50 hoteliers and 80 others were invited to the Princess Hotel yesterday morning to ascertain just what the plan is to generate more group business, and how they can help.

A communications effective study of 600 group travel planners has highlighted challenges the Island faces in getting their attention. For one thing, nearly half of them had never been here and knew little of what the Island had to offer for groups.

Mindy Germain of DDB Needham said the survey revealed that while Bermuda rated highly as a destination, there were constraints to booking these groups.

She said the group travel planners said they heard very little of what was happening that was new in Bermuda. Bermuda was also seen as expensive.

But a campaign started in June has already generated more than 1,100 requests for more information about Bermuda from group planners. A third of them are considered to be hot prospects and 255 of them have already requested a site visit.

Said Department of Tourism manager, group & incentives, for North America, Dianne Carlson: "Our competition has grown in leaps and bounds. We compete with the world in the group travel market. "The market consists of corporate meetings, travel by professional associations and, corporate incentive programmes which are reward trips from businesses to their employees.

"This is very lucrative for destinations. The rest of the world recognises this is a lucrative business, but the market overall has not grown.

"If anything, associations and corporations more and more are looking at the bottom line. They've become more price conscious and value conscious. And they have a lot of choices.'' Ms Carlson said that her office has had to become more aggressive, and more focused in trying to get Bermuda considered as a potential candidate.

She said: "Ten years ago, if we generated between two and three hundred sales leads for Bermuda, that was a good year. Last year, we generated 10,000 group sales leads, clients who have expressed an interest in the destination. Those leads have to be qualified, of course. But 10,000 sales leads is not enough.'' The conversion rate, the rate at which the leads turn into real business, is small. But there have been a lot of changes in corporate America and therefore Bermuda needs to get more of the decision-makers for the group business on the Island, so they can see how successful their group meeting here could be.

Travel planners by nature are demanding people, because they will take the credit for a good group meeting and will have to take the blame, when something goes wrong or the participants don't enjoy themselves. They don't just demand value, but creativity from destinations.

At yesterday's meetings at the Princess Hotel, officials hammered home the point that they were making an increasing number of, and more productive, contacts with those who plan group travel.

TEAM EFFORT -- At yesterday's presentation are (seated) Laurie Kaiden (left) and Leslie A. Cohen of Tourism's public relations firm, Porter Novelli.

Standing from left are Mindy Germain of DDB Needham Worldwide, Tourism's advertising agency; Michael Swan, Tourism's manager of promotional materials; Ray Peyton, managing partner of New Jersey incentive travel planners, The TR Group; Tourism's assistant director, marketing, Pat Phillip-Bassett; Tourism's Lacey Fraser; and Tourism's manager, group & incentive sales, North America, Dianne Carlson.

TOURISM TOU