Island, which was "well-positioned'' to meet growing world-wide tourism competition.

Canadian visitors currently represent about ten percent of annual air arrivals -- some 35,000.

According to a survey of 114 major travel agents in Canada's Atlantic provinces, visitor numbers could be boosted by better air links, improved package tours, promotion of the "adventure tourism'' trend and making more effort to show Bermuda is not as expensive as Canadians perceive it to be.

The survey was conducted in June by Bermudian Mr. Thomas Nisbett, who owns research company Petrel Communications Associates in New Brunswick, Canada.

Mr. Nisbett had sat down and discussed the results with Tourism Minister the Hon. C.V. (Jim) Woolridge, and sent copies to the Premier and the Chamber of Commerce.

He said Mr. Woolridge was particularly interested in a recommendation to work with regional carriers in Canada to come up with joint fares between them and the larger air lines.

Travel agents had noted Air Canada was the only airline directly serving Bermuda from their area, and it only offered the service part of the year.

Year-round, weekly air service was needed between Eastern Canada and Bermuda, they said.

Another suggestion in the survey was for the Tourism Ministry to develop a new brochure highlighting the fact Bermuda offers reef and deep-sea fishing, scuba diving, para-sailing, boat and nature tours.

There was a growing market for "adventure tourism'', they noted. The survey further uncovered that there was an "increasingly predominant perception'' in the North American market that Bermuda was expensive.

"This is an area which we believe could provide the greatest `down-side risk' in any future tourism development,'' the survey said.

Mr. Nisbett said he had noted while here that goods and services prices compared favourably to those in Canada and other holiday destinations.

Travel agents also reported problems with package tours. They felt more all-inclusive, varied and shorter ones were needed. And they said customers had to wait too long to get space confirmations.

Other results included that most travel agents felt Bermuda sales were about the same or had decreased. Seventy percent felt a Tourism representative in Eastern Canada would increase business.

"Overall, Bermuda continues to show very favourable acceptance with some 96.6 percent of respondents rating Bermuda as excellent or good as a tourism destination,'' Mr. Nisbett said. "Similarly, some 96.6 percent of those surveyed reported that clients' experiences in Bermuda either lived up to or exceeded expectations.'' "This type of result bodes well for the future of tourism in the Island, but there is still a lot of work to do.''