tighten their purse strings again.

This is the view of at least one of several local retailers who believe the Island's tourism industry still has a long way to go to fully recover from recession.

Visitor spending was not what it should be considering the improvement in air and cruise visitors so far this year, they said.

Adding to their worries, air arrivals slipped slightly last week after dropping for the first time in months the week before.

Most of the merchants who spoke to the The Royal Gazette last week believed the majority of their business was from hotel visitors. But they had not been spending enough to make any marked improvement in business.

And though two of last season's cruise liners had been replaced with larger ships, cruise visitor spending was only up slightly over last year.

"We have not yet seen a large increase in sales due to the larger ships,'' said Mr. Warren Brown Jr., of Archie Brown and Son. "Generally speaking sales are not up -- they are flat.'' He blamed the poor cruise passenger business on a lack of on-board promotion of local stores.

"We need a proper promotional campaign aboard the ships,'' he said. "The marketing of Bermuda shops is not as strong as it should be.'' There were, however, some retailers who were pleased with business and believed cruise passengers were spending significantly.

"We are really quite pleased with sales so far,'' said the manager of Smugglers Reef, a new souvenir and resort clothing shop on Front Street.

Mrs. Dorothy Nelmes said the store was seeing many return shoppers, especially off the cruise ships.

Bluck's president Lt. Col. Michael Darling said his shops were bustling with people when ships were in port. But most of his big sales were to hotel visitors, although every now and again a cruise visitor made an expensive purchase.

This year, due to some hotels lowering their rates, the Island may attract less wealthy visitors, he pointed out.

"Business is certainly better, but nothing like it was,'' he said. "Compared to the last few years, sales are generally quite flat. I think there is still a lot of uncertainly in the US with Americans not knowing what new taxes there will be.'' Trimingham's vice president Mr. Andrew Trimingham was "fairly satisfied'' with cruise visitor spending taking into account the two larger liners.

He had "solid evidence'' spending at his department store was mostly by cruise visitors.

"The hotel branches are not doing so well, while our main store is doing very well compared to last year -- which was appalling anyway,'' he said. "The cruise people are clearly spending much better than hotel guests.'' Smith's department store president Mr. Roger Davidson welcomed the additional cruise passengers.

But he noted there was still a "fair degree of caution among US shoppers''.

They were looking for discounts like they were used to at home, he said.

"Our business is up a little with the extra cruise passengers,'' he said.

Tolaram's general manager Mr. Raj Tolaram said cruise visitors were spending more this year, but probably because there were more of them.'' "I'm pleased with sales so far, people have definitely adjusted their spending attitude,'' he said.

He added they were not buying the "high-ticket items'' though.

The Body Shop manager Mrs. Diana Antonition said she noted a higher volume of sales on the days the cruise ships were in port.

"Spending has definitely increased but people are still a little penny wise,'' she said.

Gosling Brothers vice president of marketing Mr. Charles Gosling was also pleased with sales compared to a year ago.

"I think you've got to attribute it to the cruise passengers,'' he said.

"They are certainly a valuable resource to Bermuda.'' Vera P. Card manager Mr. Jan Card said: "Spending is generally up compared to last year but primarily because last year was so bad.'' He noted that last year cruise lines had resorted to discounting to fill their ships, bringing "shoe-string people'' to Bermuda. But this year they seemed to be arriving fully loaded. He added that he had seen more of an improvement in spending by hotel visitors than cruise passengers.