Alcohol retailers are worried that hotels will import their own duty free liquor under the Hotel Concessions Act, damaging their own businesses and possibly reducing choice for the consumer.

A month after questions were sent to the Ministry of Tourism concerning alcohol concessions, a written response was made by Acting Director of Tourism, Judith Hall-Bean. She said of local retailers concerns: "Yes, the local retailers do not want their market disrupted by having hoteliers import alcohol duty free."

Ms Hall-Bean explained no Customs Duty is charged on domestic liquor but said of imported liquor: "The Customs duty is paid on entry. A refund will be provided after documented expenditures on Bermudian Entertainment."

And Ms Hall-Bean clarified the "money saved is to be spent on training for Bermudians, employment of Bermudian entertainers, and marketing expenditures on properties".

Burrows and Lightbourne managing director Richard Hartley said yesterday that he and chairman of Goslings Brothers Ltd. Malcolm Gosling Sr. had a meeting with Finance Minister Eugene Cox almost two years ago about alcohol concessions.

They were trying to find out exactly how the mechanics of the concessions would work, but never got a definitive answer.

He said their initial concern was that hotels would start to import their own liquor without purchasing it through a local distributor, and he highlighted the fact that Marriott's Castle Harbour Resort used to import its own liquor, as well as the Princess Hotels, but the Marriott is now closed and the Princess group buys far more through local distributors.

General manager of the Fairmont Southampton Princess Norman Mastalir said yesterday that he believed the hotel was now buying all of their liquor from local distributors.

And Mr. Mastalir said local merchants were providing very attractive prices that meant it would was probably unprofitable to import their own liquor.

While strongly against specific legislative measures for special treatment for alcohol retailers, Mr. Hartley said: "I would like to see the hotels to be given the break if it is justified with a requirement that those purchases are made out of local bonded warehouses."

Mr. Hartley did not want to make it look like local merchants want to get it their own way and said the Buy-Bermuda campaign was a perfect example of the concerns of alcohol distributors. If large quantities of alcohol are bought from overseas by hotels, the local market will suffer, he said.

"If you do something that damages our business, the result will be less choice on the Island," he said.

However, Mr. Hartley said this was a worst-case scenario and he did not really envisage such drastic outcomes although there has been little information from Government to allay these fears.

The concessions will directly affect Government's revenue and when asked how the Finance Ministry would account for the revenue shortfall, Ms Hall-Bean said: "The Ministry of Finance will account for it as a refund of Customs Duty paid."

When asked the value of the concessions hotels had applied for, Ms Hall-Bean said: "All processed hotel concession orders have been passed by Parliament and already made public. Other applications are still being negotiated and are not subject to publication at this time."

When asked the value of concessions that had been used, Ms Hall-Bean said: "As of this time the rebates on Customs Duty on alcohol entailed in concession orders already processed have not been consummated."

The Tourism Ministry could not provide figures for how much alcohol the Island's visitor accommodations had spent in previous years but Ms Hall-Bean explained that new hotels and hotels that have completed renovations will sell greater volumes of liquor, something which is not related to historical trends.

Ms Hall-Bean said the duration of the concessions was for a period not exceeding five years from the hotel opening date or re-opening date as specified in each individual hotel concession order.