Today's sophisticated travellers want to know a lot more about the natural surroundings of the places they visit, Mrs. Simone Barton and Mrs. Suzanne Montgomery quite rightly believe.

And to ensure that Bermuda gets its rightful share of the lucrative eco-tourism market, the Marriott Castle Harbour staffers have decided, with the help of the Bermuda Aquarium, to see that their co-workers and those at other local hotels are well-versed in the environment-related subjects that many visitors are already asking about.

"Eco-tourism,'' activities director Mrs. Barton said during one of the Aquarium-conducted training sessions at the Marriott recently, "is the fastest growing area in the hospitality industry today.

"We did this (conducted the workshops) because we wanted to be able to speak more intelligently to our guests about Bermuda's natural heritage. It (eco-tourism) is something that we'd really like to see grow here.'' Strangely, the Island's Department of Tourism has neglected in the past few years to assume a leadership role in the promotion of Bermuda -- one of the most interesting natural habitats and the northernmost tropical environment in the world -- as a prime destination for the modern-day eco-tourist.

Consequently, Mrs. Barton and assistant Mrs. Montgomery (whose brainchild the scheme reportedly was) are almost single-handedly spearheading the movement among hoteliers to sell this particular aspect of the Island, a scenario that the bright and endlessly energetic hotel workers don't necessarily seem to mind.

"Tourism can come into this later,'' Mrs. Barton said with a meaningful smile. "I feel that (eco-tourism in Bermuda) should grow from the ground up, from those who are dealing directly with the guests.'' And so the eventual emergence of Bermuda as the Galapagos of the North Atlantic could very well spring from the discussions, exercises and games that took place under the expert eye of Aquarium education co-ordinator Mrs. Mary Winchell in a third-floor suite and on the grounds and beaches of the Marriott last week.

Dressed in an array of brightly coloured polo shirts that proclaimed their various areas of employment (housekeeping, activities, guest relations) and as keen on their subject matter as a class of day-tripping grade schoolers, some half a dozen Marriott staffers, two from the Sonesta Beach Hotel and another from Bermuda Island Cruises gathered for the whole day on Thursday to be schooled in the geological and botanical make-up of the Island.

Representatives from Tourism and many other hotels were also invited to take part, but were prevented from doing so because of previous commitments. "They all wanted to come,'' Mrs. Barton said of the invitees. "It was just bad timing.'' She added that more Aquarium sessions would be scheduled for interested parties in the future.

At the Marriott, meanwhile, interested tourists are already being taken on nature walks and power hikes as a part of the hotel's activity schedule. The purpose of coaching the hotel's employees in the Island's natural heritage, Mrs. Barton said, was to make those activities more meaningful for the participants.

"They (the visitors) ask a lot of questions,'' she told The Royal Gazette .

"And they often get very technical.'' "Technical,'' of course, was how the training session at the Marriott could have been -- and was -- described last week.

For although the workshop was conducted by Mrs. Winchell in a spirit of fun and good humour, trainees were, for example, expected to memorise the difference between a green and a loggerhead turtle and to sound off for visitors on the volcanic origins of sand here.

At one point, the group also took part in a diverting but equally demanding exercise in which they were asked to identify some 20 different types of Bermudian plant life, including such prevalent but still relatively obscure specimens as buttonwood, sea or bay lavender and scurvy grass.

Some participants in the exercise fared better than others -- the highest score being 14 out of 20 -- but the group's enjoyment level was high and participants seemed to retain a lot.

"I feel very empowered,'' Mrs. Barton said only somewhat facetiously of Mrs.

Winchell's enjoinders to "smell the plants if you want, feel the texture of the leaves.'' The activities director added: "I feel the spirit of the plants.'' Indeed, the whole Island seems to take on a brand new feeling when it's seen through the eyes of an eco- cognoscento .

From that perspective, for instance, Harrington Lake is more than just a lake -- it's the crater of an extinct volcano.

And the rock face that fronts the Marriott's main entrance is more than merely a rock face. It -- though most of the people who pass it wouldn't know it -- is a fossilised ancient forest.

"This is amazing -- just amazing,'' more than one hotel worker-cum-eco guide was heard to have exclaimed on the learning of such facts.

It will now be up to them to transfer that same sense of wonder to the many interested tourists that descend on Bermuda annually -- or may choose to come here because it values its eco past.

ECO-NOMICS -- Believing that Bermuda's tourism future lies in the promotion of its natural past, Marriott activities director Mrs. Simone Barton (left) and assistant Mrs. Suzanne Montgomery examine a piece of rock on the grounds of the hotel recently. Marriott's hosted a workshop on the Island's physical make-up on Thursday in an effort to boost its staff's knowledge of its natural surroundings and thereby foster eco-tourism.