DDB Needham pulled out of the race for the Department of Tourism's advertising contract because it was unable to find a local advertising agency to team up with.

The news came yesterday from Tourism Minister David Allen who was responding to claims by the agency's president that his firm was not bidding for the contract because of the political nature of the Island's tourism industry.

The New York Times reported on Monday that DDB Needham, which held the Department of Tourism's advertising contract for the past decade, had withdrawn from the review process announced by Mr. Allen in November.

Agency president Peter Tate was quoted in the article as saying the firm had pulled out of the race for the multi-million dollar contract because of the "increasingly political environment surrounding tourism in Bermuda''.

Yesterday Mr. Allen said this was an ambiguous comment: "The reality is that we in our Request For Proposal had said that it was mandatory for any agency bidding on the contracts to find a local partner.

"We supplied the agencies who were invited to bid in the process with a list of the eight full service agencies in Bermuda.

"It is my understanding that none of the local agencies wanted to participate in the process with DDB Needham.'' Mr. Allen revealed that the Department knew DDB Needham pulled out of the race for the contracts some days ago when he received a letter from the firm announcing its intentions.

He added he met with Mr. Tate after announcing the contract review process in November when the company was trying to decide whether or not to participate and attempted to persuade the agency to enter.

"I actively encouraged them to bid early in December and told them I would be disappointed if they did not bid for the account because they had been the incumbent for ten years and had surely gained a massive amount of knowledge about Bermuda in that time.'' At that time a level playing field was promised, said Mr. Allen, and two days later DDB Needham confirmed that it would bid for the new contracts. It was a shame that it had now pulled out, he continued, because the promised level playing field was firmly in place as the main criteria for the review committee was to find the best possible advertising campaign that it could.

"I cannot begin to speculate why local agencies would be unwilling to participate in the review process with DDB Needham.

"We want the best thing for Bermuda that will help put Bermuda tourism on the map. The best campaign will get the account.'' DDB Needham would not have had its past work with the former Government, which included the highly-publicised Let Yourself Go campaign, held against it, continued Mr. Allen.

"In my opinion, the client sets the parameters and the agency can deliver as good a product as the client demands or insists upon. Let Yourself Go was not wise but we have new parameters -- putting the Bermudian identity back into Bermuda tourism.'' The process of short-listing the bids begins tomorrow, noted Mr. Allen, and the emphasis remained on getting a campaign in place as soon as possible.