been working in Lesotho, the former Basutoland which is completely surrounded by South Africa, on behalf of the Commonmwealth Secretariat as part of the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation.

Lesotho is keen to develop itself as a tourism destination in its own right.

In the past it has had mainly "add on'' tourists who visit Lesotho for a day or two during their holiday in South Africa.

To develop its tourism industry on a firm footing, Lesotho has introduced tourism as a subject in primary and secondary schools to prepare its citizens for a role in the industry.

Among a wide range of duties, Ms Garraway has been lecturing on the teaching of tourism in the schools and on why tourism should be taught.

She says, "Attitudes to tourism, particularly towards foreign visitors, need to be addressed at a very early age. Young people have to be made aware of the benefits of tourism and the importance of making visitors feel welcome.'' In her view, a welcoming attitude should pervade right across the host population from immigration and customs officials who are the first people foreign visitors meet to hotel staff and shop keepers.

"The population as a whole needs to be receptive. This is very very important.'' "Customs and immigration officers are the first point of contact with tourists...they are ambassadors for their country. It is important that they are aware of what tourism means to the economy of this nation.'' She has also conducted a series of workshops as part of the plan, attended by tourism staff and also by officials from other government departments, including foreign service and border personnel, and front line tourism employees such as hotel receptionists and cashiers. They have covered areas from introduction to tourism to marketing and public relations.

The operative sentence in all of this appears to us to be, "It is important that they are aware of what tourism means to the economy of this nation.'' Far too often Bermudians have not been aware of the importance of tourism to Bermuda or even of the importance of tourism to their own incomes.

It seems to us that Bermuda could well do with some of these seminars to demonstrate the importance of visitors in such areas as hotel and restaurant staff, sales people, immigration and customs officers, and especially to bus drivers and taxi operators.

No matter what Bermuda might do as a result of the Monitor studies, we need a welcoming attitude which should pervade Bermuda. Once it was natural but as a mature destination we seem to have lost some of that welcome and a few lessons might be very beneficial.

Ms Garraway has now finished her assignment in Lesotho.