The Bermuda brand has lost its focus and affluent potential visitors do not know about the Island, according to a leading hotelier.And employers in the industry are faced with a revolving door of employees who are trained and then leave and who should not be in the industry.But Michael Winfield, owner of luxury resort Cambridge Beaches, believes that all is not lost and Bermuda's hospitality industry can be turned around.“I am proud to lead a company that is devoted to finding, training and retaining Bermudians. Most of our management team, most of our entire team is Bermudian,” he says in an Op-ed piece on Page 4 today.“And most of them could be employed anywhere in the world at the best hotels in the world. But we are constantly facing the situation where Bermudians apply, go through training, and then leave too much work, simply don't turn up for work, call in sick, fail to deliver on the vital standards.“So, those employees leave, and are replaced with others some of which share exactly the same challenges.“In reality, they simply shouldn't be employed in the hospitality business. This does not mean they are bad people, it is just they don't have the right characteristics for this industry.“But around and around we go, with a revolving door of employment, meanwhile we are being judged every day by our clients, comparing us to all the other places in the world that they travel and not in the slightest bit interested that a maid called in sick, or was having a bad day, so their room was not cleaned properly, food took too long to get to the table, they weren't greeted warmly and professionally by the front desk, etc, etc.”The challenges faced by his industry are compounded by “the constant headlines of crime and destructive behaviour”.“Those headlines are now read all over the world by prospective guests.“It has got so bad that we have discontinued providing the daily paper to our guests as a free service, we simply don't want them reading about our constant problems,” Mr Winfield says.“Additionally, the fact that the brand Bermuda has lost its focus, that many of the affluent clients who are our prospective clients don't know about Bermuda, don't know where we are and don't understand the intrinsic values of Bermuda, resulting in reduced demand, which in turn is forcing some hotels into deep discounts, forcing rates that are not sustainable, eliminating the ability to earn enough to have funds to reinvest in their properties, just to stay competitive.“All this adds up to a negative spiral and is an essential reason why today there are less than half the number of rooms available on the Island than there were not long ago.”Mr Winfield was motivated to speak out after reading this newspaper's coverage of Government's work permits moratorium policy.He said it is not true that employers do not want to employ locals as the alternative was costly and inconvenient.“It is clearly much smarter and easier to employ Bermudians.”And he dismissed the idea that foreign workers are paid more than Bermudians, saying that the hotel industry is unionised and operates under a collective bargaining agreement.“Staff are paid uniformly according to position, tenure and experience. The BIU represents foreign and local staff alike and they would be the first to grieve should we set up a double standard of remuneration,” Mr Winfield says.“Apart from that, it just wouldn't be good business.”The “realities” of the hospitality, Mr Winfield says, includes the fact that Bermuda is a far more expensive place to operate compared to our competition.“Given the higher costs, we have to charge higher rates for our services, if we don't, we can't survive. And the only way we can get away with charging higher rates is ensuring that the value we deliver exceeds the expectations of the clients paying those higher rates,” Mr Winfield continued.“Higher rates mean higher levels of service, of physical infrastructure of our operations, our restaurants, rooms, facilities, grounds and public spaces.”On employment issues, Mr Winfield echoes the view of many employers.“There is a view that as the economy forces Bermudians out of work, all of them should be simply absorbed into our business.“I agree that we have an innate and essential responsibility for training. And yes, we can train the technical skills necessary for any position,” he says.“But you cannot offer to those demanding guests, paying high rates, a workforce that is under training, you always have to have a preponderance of trained and skilled employees on the front line. Beyond this, applicants to our industry must have a high work ethic, they must be prepared to work shifts, work on weekends and public holidays.“We have to leave our bad days and our ‘tudes' at the gates of our property, we are on stage and we must deliver excellent performance each and every time.“Second best just won't cut it with guests paying the highest rates. We must be first class, every day, every time.”He said it was important to ensure that “the new national tourism plan is not allowed, like so many that have come before, to die on a shelf, that the marketing company about to be selected, is fully supported and understands the fundamental challenges and works for solutions that help us define Bermuda, get our awareness and thus demand up and set clearly the values of a Bermuda vacation that allow us to charge the rates we have to, to survive and those of us who have anything to do with the product of Bermuda are working together to ensure we deliver and exceed the expectations of value that or marketing and our rates are creating.”And he adds: “We have the knowledge and the expertise to understand and deliver the solutions, the question is do we have the will and the courage to put those plans into place, to demote immediate political interests, on both sides of the aisle, in favour of long term national interests? The jury is out.”