MPs gave their views on the future of Bermuda’s tourism industry during a wide-ranging debate on the new National Tourism Plan in the House of Assembly on Friday.Kim Swan, who was elected as a United Bermuda Party MP, said that entrepreneurs decades ago developed a product that worked.He said Bermuda should “say thank-you” to those who founded various golf tournaments and events such as the Newport to Bermuda race and added that it is “very good” that Government has now come up with a plan, but it has come “at the eleventh hour and 45 minutes.”He said Bermuda has “drifted away from core markets” and “the decline occurred when Government took its focus entirely off air arrivals and put it on cruise ships”. “When I look through the plan I find a lot of initiatives I have to support.”However Mr Swan said it was important to get a dedicated cruise ship for St George’s and asked why a subcommittee could not be set up to examine cruise ships that could come to the town on a regular basis.He also raised the issue of the overgrown golf course in the town and said it was important to get that developed before any another development took place, such as the proposed hotel. He asked why the development of the golf course could not be another public private partnership.Mr Swan added: “The Bermuda product depends on the Bermudian attitude and we have some way to go. I would urge that we make tourism awareness a key issue.”Minister for Youth and Families Glenn Blakeney said history had played a part in the decline of the industry with sons and daughters seeing the way it had treated their parents or grandparents and as a result not wanting to enter into tourism.He also said employers had to do some honest broking. “It is not always about the bottom line, this is a people orientated industry,” said Mr Blakeney.“It is all of us that have to believe in this plan.”Estates Minister Michael Scott said: “This plan is a strategic plan. It speaks of co-ordination. The public is looking to us to breathe life into this document.”Shadow Transport Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said: “This is something that every single member of this House has an obligation to support. I publicly stated when this plan was first put to the public at Berkeley that we should all embrace it because this is what we have to work with.”However she ask Government if the plan takes into account the possibility that the referendum on gaming reveals that the public is against its implementation.PLP MP Terry Lister said he was pleasantly surprised by the positive reception for the plan, and stressed that while Bermuda must improve its air arrivals, it should not sacrifice its existing cruise ship business in the process.He also said that industry partners should play a role in the marketing of the Island, as they do in other jurisdictions.“When I look at other destinations, it’s the industry that makes the investment,” he said. “Everyone knows Sandals. They know where Sandals is. Sandals goes out and sells Sandals. They are spending the money.“We shouldn’t be the ones putting all the money on the table.”Mr Lister also noted the success of the World Rugby Classic as a successful example of sports tourism organised largely by the private sector, suggesting that the same model could work with other sports.“We take the role of facilitators. We should be facilitators.”He further suggested that Bermuda push to establish a weekly low cost charter flight to the UK, which would encourage travellers to stay on the Island for a week or two rather than just a few days.Transportation Minister Walter Roban said the plan succeeds in improving the Island’s tourism product by focusing on its strengths.“There is a lot that is going right and the plan talks about some clear examples of those. We do still have an established good reputation as a visitor destination,” he said.Regarding his Ministry, he said that the increasing focus on Dockyard as a tourism destination has changed the role of public transportation, causing increasing demand on buses and ferries to transport visitors.He further noted Government’s past efforts to increasing air arrivals, noting that Government has over the years announced 33 new flights, several of which he admitted are no longer in service.Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons said that while he was pleased to see a tourism plan from the Government, he said producing a plan is easy compared to implementing it.“It’s just a plan, and the important stuff is going to be to take this plan and actually try to make it work.”He further questioned how the forecast results of the plan were produced, saying that there is nothing included to suggest where the predicted increases in arrivals and spending will come from.PLP backbencher Dale Butler meanwhile said that in order to turn the industry around and make the plan truly work, much needs to be done.While he said it might draw him some political fallout, he said that something needs to be done to ensure that union meetings don’t take place in the height of tourist activity.“We cannot have any more meetings at 10am,” he said. “Sorry guys. If we are serious about providing service to guests, that has to end.“Yes, I do respect that workers can demonstrate in the streets and hold meetings, but not at that time. That has to stop.”Noting failed applications to build a bar and bistro on Warwick Long Bay, he suggested in the future Government take the lead on similar projects, finding appropriate locations and talking to residents before, and putting contracts to tender once agreeable areas are found.He praised St George’s Mayor Kenneth Bascome for his suggestion to push “nostalgia tourism,” targeting those who may have lived on one of the Island’s bases or have other connections to Bermuda, saying it was a market that needs more attention.Mr Butler also suggested hiring someone to wear a classic police uniform and stand in the Bird Cage for the benefit of tourists, saying: “That’s a simple thing that people are asking for. They love it. They like to see an officer in there in his shorts.”He further called on Bermudians to support and promote local entertainment, noting ‘Death by Disco’ at Shine’s Club and ‘Bermuda Magic’ at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess.Minister of the Environment Marc Bean complained about Bermuda’s lack of nightlife and “stiff-neckedness” when it comes to allowing tourists to have fun.He noted that “high net worth individuals like discretion and they like fun and that’s one of the aspects of our brand that we need to focus on”.He complained: “In Bermuda at two or three o’clock in the morning, you’ve had a few drinks and you’ve just got talking to the cute girl across the bar and the lights come on and you’ve got to go home.“By extending your nightlife you extend your capacity for more employment. Our nightlife is too stiff-necked.”He admitted that this would hinge on the “security situation” as it will not work if “the guys act up”.Mr Bean also complained about the difficulty in getting a beer to drink on the beach in Bermuda, which he also attributed to “stiff-neckedness”.He said he had no issue with this as long as people put their bottles in the trash.“What’s the problem with allowing a tourist who will probably spend $3-5 for a beer having a beer on the beach?” he inquired.Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards said it is a myth that there is no capital available to invest in Bermuda. However, he said, convincing people to invest that capital is a problem.He said the new tourism plan will not help as it is “more about making us feel good rather than persuading an investor to invest two, three, four billion dollars to revive the tourism industry”.Mr Richards said to him that if the plan is supposed to appeal to investors “then it is D.O.A. Dead On Arrival. It’s not specific enough, it’s not compelling enough and it’s not reasonable enough.”He added: “If you’re going to get those sitting on mountains of capital to unzip their wallets and invest in Bermuda our approach (in the One Bermuda Alliance) has been we will go and ask them what it is they need to see in Bermuda to unzip that wallet and then we go and try to implement those things.”Government MP Darius Tucker spoke of friends he has in the Masons who recently visited the Island and how such people have disposable cash to spend. He said he has noticed that some people are converting their homes into small tourist accommodations. He has also noticed more rental cycles on the road and the Wildcat speedboat tour is back.“We are going forward. Yes, there’s some work to do but we must keep moving forward with this plan,” he said.Economy and Trade Minister Patrice Minors shared some ideas she picked up during a recent meeting with entrepreneurs in St George’s. They included plans to appeal to yachting enthusiasts by providing concierge services to visiting yachts. She also mooted the concept of local restaurants sending vessels out to yachts to pick up diners for the evening.Education Minister Dame Jennifer Smith outlined several tourist events coming up in her St George’s constituency soon and said the Old Town is encouraging entrepreneurship. She stressed how vital “niche marketing” is to the tourism product and said Bermuda should be boasting about its fortifications, reefs and shipwrecks to those who take a special interest in them.“Bermudians have always been, I think, a bit reticent about blowing our own horns,” she said. “We are going to have to get more used to doing that.”Premier Paula Cox said that what excited her the most about the plan is that she believes the public are buying into the project, saying: “Once people buy into something, they own it, and they seek to implement it and follow through.”She noted her own positive experiences with new local entertainment and that Bermuda tourism is getting its swagger back.Responding to criticism of the predicted increases described in the plan, she said the results are reasonable and achievable, but Opposition MP Trevor Moniz continued to express his doubts, saying there was nothing in the plan to back it up.“There are many good ideas we see in there, but we thing the effectiveness is going to be smaller and over a longer term horizon,” Mr Moniz said.He said that while new hotel developments and the possible introduction of gaming could make a difference, the impact of such moves wouldn’t be seen in the next few years.“That’s not to say we don’t have some good things happening, but they are not reversing the downward trend,” Mr Moniz said. “There is no indication in the text of this plan that these goals are obtainable.”Responding, Tourism Minister Wayne Furbert said that the plan put forward was an abridged version of the full 149-page plan, and that the full plan explains in detail how the goals will be achieved.He argued that the tourism industry is healthy in the summer, but that there is plenty of room to grow in the shoulder seasons.“If we can build those numbers, we can get to these numbers without even building new rooms,” he said. “I’m just saying it is workable if we work for it.”He meanwhile challenged the Opposition, saying the OBA don’t have a plan for the tourism industry.“I’m certain that they don’t have a plan because they don’t believe anything can work,” Mr Furbert said. “We have the back up support for these numbers. I would like to see their numbers because they don’t have any plans to go forward on.”A total of 22 MPs from across all the parties gave their unanimous backing to the National Tourism Plan at the end of the lengthy debate.