Bermuda can look forward to millions of dollars of free publicity which could run for years as a result of a travel writers' conference being held this year, organisers said yesterday.

Around 500 of North America's leading tourism journalists, photographers and cameramen will come to the Island in September for the annual Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) conference.

The Tourism Department is pulling out all the stops to organise around 30 different events to ensure the journalists -- members of the world's biggest association of travel writers -- realise there is more to Bermuda than sun and beaches.

The Royal Gazette revealed on Saturday that the conference was coming to Bermuda this year and would be held at the Fairmont Southampton Princess, September 4-9.

Ed Stone of SATW, who is organising pre- and post-convention story opportunities for the journalists, told a Press conference in the Senate yesterday: "A vast amount of publicity is received.

"It is in millions of dollars of publicity in everything from National Geographic to national newspapers and smaller publications.'' Tourism Minister David Allen said the publicity could last up to two years because of the long lead-in time in commissioning articles for magazines.

He said when Hungary hosted the SATW conference in the 1980s, it was able to chart a direct increase in visitor numbers in following years. SATW convention organiser Cynthia Boal Janssens said although the organisation's 1300 members wrote primarily for the North American market -- which accounted for 80 percent of Bermuda's visitors -- because the journalists also wrote for the Internet, their stories would be appearing all over the world.

"The pay-out can be years because often magazine stories don't appear for a year and then the stories can be sold over and over again,'' she said.

The Island is well-known on the US east coast, but she predicted the conference would lead to much greater awareness and publicity on the west coast. The influx of top-class photographers for the convention will ensure the Island's photographic library will be updated overnight.

Mrs. Janssens and Mr. Stone have made several trips to Bermuda to begin the groundwork for the convention and have been impressed with progress so far.

Mr. Stone said the Island was buzzing because of the renovations of hotels across the Island spurred on by Government's new Hotel Concessions Act, which gave tax breaks for capital refurbishment.

"Everybody is renovating. That programme is working and that is a story along with the other products in line,'' he said.

Tourism is organising around 30 trips for the delegates concentrating on areas such as deep sea fishing, golf, cuisine, snorkelling, scuba diving, heritage and eco-tourism.

All of the writers will be taken on a boat trip from Dockyard, where the conference will be launched in a spectacular fanfare, and all will be taken to the new World Heritage site in St. George's.

Mr. Stone said a key time would be the pre and post-conference events when journalists and film crews would be actively researching stories. "The pre and post-conference story opportunities will be the real key to making this a success,'' he said.

"The participation and response from the properties has been overwhelming and I want to thank them.

"One thing to impress on the citizens of Bermuda is that they will be coming into contact with us and it is really important that they recognise us and continue to be the friendly island that they are.

"We'll all have name tags on so you can't miss us. It is really important to give directions and help them out when they are taking a picture or gathering a story.'' Mr. Allen said there would be numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs to get their businesses involved in corporate sponsorship to put their companies on the world map.

"Whether it be a restaurant business involved in the dine-around programme, cycle liveries, or sight-seeing boats, this is a wonderful opportunity to be involved or sponsor events and a really fabulous opportunity to put yourself on the map in a worldwide marketplace.'' Mrs. Janssens said retailers would also be in for a huge boost as the delegates were renowned as dedicated shoppers.