Bermuda could soon have its own signature "French Quarter" district to entice visitors to experience a true taste of the Island's heritage and culture.

As has previously been touted, it is intended to turn a portion of Court Street into a colourful experience of lifestyle, music and food reflecting the Island's own uniqueness much the way the French Quarter does for New Orleans.

Added impetus has been given to the idea after it was included in the Budget speech and further discussed by Tourism Minister Dr. Ewart Brown.

It was highlighted in the Tourism section of the Budget as Finance Minister Paula Cox announced tourism would be getting $40.2 million during the next 12 months ? a $2.5 million increase from last year with the extra money to be used to entice more visitors from Europe and South America.

Dr. Brown has this week spoken with some cruise operators about the idea of a "French Quarter" in Court Street and received favourable feedback with interest in having a new attraction for visitors to explore, especially once the weekly Harbour Nights events on Front Street finish at 10 p.m.

The Tourism Department will be a lead partner in a joint initiative to create the Court Street experience "economically empowering Bermudians and providing a novel product offering for our visitors," according to Ms Cox.

Dr. Brown further explained the area would be targeted in an expanded marketing effort.

He said: "We are hoping that our work with the Uptown Market Association will result in an accelerated exercise so that we don't keep talking about converting the area into a major tourist attraction, but that we go ahead and do it.

"We are one of a number of Ministries involved. We would like Court Street to become Bermuda's so-called "French Quarter", an area of excitement, music, food and people.

"We met last night with one of the people from the cruise liners and he was very interested in moving his passengers out of the cruise ships and up to Court Street and the uptown market area to generate some activity there and some business."

He added: "There was a time when that was the heart and soul of Bermuda's entertainment world and it fell apart over time. So we are going to restore that. When Wednesday's Harbour Night is over at 10 p.m. and people have nowhere to go, maybe they can leave Front Street and go to Court Street and spend some more money. We are going to interest the cruise ships in sending their passengers over there and I think we will see some exciting things."

Also mentioned in the Budget is a change that sees tourists and residents now paying an across-the-board 25 percent Customs duty on non-commercial goods brought to the Island. This move has been made to speed up the process of passengers being able to clear customs at Bermuda International Airport.

There was a 3.3 percent increase in the number of jobs in the hotel sector during the past year, but there was a $2 million downward revision of the amount of passenger taxes to be collected in this financial year, dropping from a projected $27 million.

Efforts to have air fares lowered for flights to and from Bermuda will continue, said Ms Cox.

Dr. Brown was asked what financial subsidy the Government gives to air carriers to reduce fares and offer discounts such as the current $49 one-way flights by TNT Vacations from New York and Boston.

He replied: "We give varying degrees of help. We help some people with $5,000 and we help others with much more. Once we feel a proposal has merit and we are willing to attempt it on behalf of Bermuda. It must have 'bang for the buck' if we think the money is going to be well spent we'll try it.

"For example the TNT Vacations charter this week has all of a sudden livened up in New York and Boston. The first flight had 52 people and there were some people who thought that was a disappointment, but its 52 people more than we had at this time last year."

Other projects mentioned in the Budget include renovations to Fort St. Catherine and Fort Scaur.