revealed yesterday.

A whistle-stop tour of five US west coast cities to promote Bermuda cost more than $216,600 alone.

A trip to help drum up business for the new TWA flight from St. Louis, Missouri, and the extra Delta service from Atlanta ran up a bill of more than $168,800.

And the Bermuda Marketplace event in London and Manchester cost more than $79,000.

The written answers to questions from Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell also disclosed that globe-trotting Tourism Minister David Allen has spent close to 120 days abroad since taking office in November, 1998.

And the bill for his travel on official business from election day to June last year was more than $47,500.

But the answer from Mr. Allen added that the total exposure for Bermuda on overseas print and TV media in the UK, US and Europe was estimated to be worth millions of dollars.

He said: "Cover in the UK and European markets in magazines, newspapers and other media... amounted to a dollar value -- if Bermuda had to pay for it at current advertising rates -- of $1.74 million in the UK, $1.35 million in Italy and $264,865 in Germany for a total value of $3.36 million.'' Mr. Dodwell also asked when the promised incentives for the Island's ailing hotel industry would be put in place and when they would be "made public for the benefit of Bermuda's tourism rebuilding and the attraction of investors''.

Mr. Allen answered: "A bill enabling the incentives contained in the hotel investment template is currently being drafted in the Attorney General's Chambers and is expected to be tabled in the House during the current session of Parliament.'' Earlier, Mr. Allen told the House that Delta's second Atlanta flight was already showing promising signs six weeks into the service.

He said: "While the TWA service is still in its embryonic stages, having only commenced on Monday of last week, some positive results have already been produced by the new Delta route, now six weeks old.

"While it had been expected from the beginning that the new second Delta service from Atlanta would draw some traffic from the existing earlier departure, the good news is that, as of May 12, the new flight has generated nearly 1,600 extra visitors for Bermuda through Atlanta and this equates to over 8,300 additional hotel bed nights.

"In fact, during the first two weeks of May, the new service has generated as much incremental business as it did in the entire month of April and projections for the month ahead are promising.'' Mr. Allen added that -- with the decline in available hotel beds with the closure of resorts like Marriott Castle Harbour, Belmont and Lantana -- there would be limits on the growth in the business.

But he said: "However, even during March, despite the loss in overseas marketing presence previously provided by hotels now closed, occupancy rates at remaining Bermuda Hotel Association properties increased by over four percent, the highest in five years, and this pattern is expected to continue.'' Complete House coverage can be found on Page 4