Awareness of Bermuda in the British and European travel markets needs to be raised in spite of the launch of an aggressive marketing campaign there this summer, according to top tourism industry officials.

Air arrivals from the UK and Europe increased 5.5 percent for the first nine months of the year, despite dipping 2.9 percent between July and September.

But Regional Sales Manager in the UK Thomas MacDonald admitted Bermuda was relatively unknown in the UK market and he had to start from scratch when he took over the region when the UK representation company, Hills Balfour's contract was terminated.

President of the Bermuda Hotel Association, Mike Winfield agreed that more work needs to be done.

He said some 200,000 visitors from the United Kingdom travelled to Barbados last year, yet fewer than 12,000 came to Bermuda.

"Bermuda is unknown and undefined in the UK market and I am convinced that there is significant potential and that the introduction of the daily flight on BA only serves to reinforce that potential," he said.

Of the 83,474 visitors who came to Bermuda by air between July and September this year, 6,431 were from the United Kingdom and 1,156 were from Europe.

The same period last year drew 92,222 air arrivals of whom 6,567 were from the UK and 1,243 were from Europe ? accounting for a total of nine percent of the market segment.

Mr. Winfield and Mr. MacDonald both believe Tourism Minister Dr. Ewart Brown's efforts in focusing on the UK and Europe will bring substantial returns in the future

One such initiative was a visit to the Island by tour operators from Italy and Germany last month.

Mr. MacDonald said an additional group of tour operators would visit Bermuda later this month.

He said the Ministry wanted tour operators to see the product first hand and go back deciding to what degree they will support the Bermuda product.

Should this pay off, the Department of Tourism hope to launch a direct flight between Bermuda and either Milan or Munich, or both.

Currently visitors from Europe have to fly to Heathrow and travel from there to Gatwick in order to catch a flight to Bermuda.

Mr. MacDonald said the idea of a direct flight to Bermuda in less than eight hours was very appealing.