Plans to allow visitors to stay in Tucker's Point villas year round are just a stopgap solution according to Trevor Moniz.

But BDA MP Shawn Crockwell argued that anything that might help Bermuda tourism should be supported.

Minister Zane DeSilva on Friday announced that Government has redesignated 65 villas on the Tucker's Point property as hotel residences.

Previously the villas had been designated as tourist accommodations, making those who invested in full ownership villas were only able to stay there for 90 days a year.

Now owners can live in their villas all year.

Mr DeSilva said: "The Tucker's Point properties were redesignated as a matter of urgency with the hope that the redesignation would promote further significant investment in the development and thereby both assist the developers and boost tourism in Bermuda."

Shadow Attorney General Mr Moniz said while the redesignation would provide a financial boost for the resort, the results would only be short term.

"What they are trying to do is bail out the hotels, but we have to look at the long term effects," Mr Moniz said.

"It's a short term, stopgap solution. It will make them a couple of million dollars now, but it's not going to solve the problem. And soon, they will be back asking for more."

He said several hotels on the Island are in bad financial shape

"We see a lot of these hotel projects being announced and we hear that they have financing, but nothing has been built.

"They closed down the St. George's Golf Club and what have we gotten from it? Nothing so far.

"Hopefully someone in Government will start to put the pieces together."

Moniz also said the Government was sending mixed messages by allowing hoteliers to sell to non-Bermudians when Bermudians can't.

"This represents a two tier society," Mr Moniz said. "The Government has stopped Bermudians from selling either qualifying condos or houses to non-Bermudians while enriching hotel developers by permitting them to become property developers where the hotel component will become vestigial and may whither away altogether.

"They took away the rights of locals to sell to non-Bermudians, and now they've created a whole new market for people to buy homes that were built for tourism."

Mr Crockwell agreed that it seemed Government was "talking out of both sides of it's mouth" by allowing the resort to sell units to foreigners, but said any measure to help the tourism industry should be supported.

"It seems that the Government is promoting the opportunity for Tucker's Point to sell their property to non-Bermudians and own them year round," Mr. Crockwell said. "In that sense they are talking out of both sides of their mouth, given that there is a restriction on the sale of land to non-Bermudians.

"However, we think that this may help to stimulate investment into the hotels, which are going through a difficult economic climate."

However, he said Government needs to make sure that a level playing field is created by offering other resorts in a similar position the same opportunity.