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Think
Bermuda and images of tidy pastel cottages, pink-sand beaches
and quintessential British traditions like cricket matches
and afternoon tea spring to mind, plus of course those professional
gents going about their business in jackets, ties and Bermuda
shorts, as if they forgot to put their pants on. For once
the stereotype matches up to reality, though you may be somewhat
disoriented if you mistakenly thought Bermuda was somewhere
in the Caribbean. The island is, in fact, situated in the
western Atlantic Ocean, nearly 600 nautical miles off the
coast of North Carolina.
The
majority of visitors to Bermuda come from North America for
short stays, and most consider the island to be quaintly British;
the Brits, on the other hand, come in much smaller numbers
but tend to consider the island highly Americanized. It is,
of course, uniquely Bermudian - a product of nearly four centuries
of British colonial history and an equally long reliance on
American trade.
Full
country name: Bermuda
Area: 21 sq miles
Population: 62,997
Capital city: Hamilton (pop 15,000)
People: 61% African descent, 38% Caucasian descent, a small
minority of American Indian descent
Language: English
Religion: Christian (28% Anglican, 15% Roman Catholic)
Government: Self-governing British dependency
Premier: Jennifer Smith
Head of State: Queen Elizabeth II; represented by Governor
Sir John Vereker
GDP:
US$1.98 billion
GDP per head: US$30,000
Inflation: 2.1%
Major industries: Tourism, finance, insurance, structural
concrete products, paints, perfumes, pharmaceuticals, ship
repairing
Major trading partners: USA, Canada & UK
Bermuda
Flight from UK
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