Health and political concerns have forced one of Bermuda's tourism experts to resign from an organisation designed to revitalise the industry.

W.A. (Toppy) Cowen quit his post as chairman of the Visitor Industry Partnership on Friday, with immediate effect, after nine months with the organisation.

Yesterday, Mr. Cowen told The Royal Gazette he had been thinking over the move for several months and one of his major considerations was health. An illness last year required him to go overseas for treatment.

"Since my retirement last July I have been overwhelmed with community projects and my family have persuaded me to re-think my commitment,'' he said.

But the former hotelier, who also sits on other committees, also said political interference and a heavy workload had also contributed to the final decision to leave his unpaid work at VIP.

He said VIP was designed to have broad objectives to set the tourism industry on the road to success again -- but he was disappointed that a particular project to improve Flatts village failed to get off the ground because "some people felt they shouldn't be spending time on that particular area''.

"Within the Government, some thought we shouldn't be devoting as much time to that specific project, we should be diversifying,'' he said.

He added the VIP programme should have a brief to make improvements to tourism across the Island, whenever and wherever it could.

"There should be no political interference. The VIP was established as non-partisan, to create relationships and partnerships so we can all work together.'' One of his biggest disappointments was that nothing was achieved in Flatts, but Mr. Cowen now intends to take up that particular mantle and push it forward, with the help of anyone who wishes to become involved.

"It hasn't been given the attention over the years and needs to be improved.

It will become a personal goal. Come hell or high water, it will receive some revitalisation.'' VIP has achieved many things, but Mr. Cowen said it needed to move forward and get the involvement of a big player, as Caribbean countries had done with American Express, to boost its profile.

In addition, developments such as the planned attitude survey, and web page, needed to be combined with tourism awareness as the common denominator.