Bermuda's boat operators has caught fire.

At issue is control of tour desks. Boat operators complain that a competitor, Bermuda Island Cruises Ltd., now controls the desks at all the Island's largest hotels.

Operating the desks through contracts with individual hotels, BIC provides information about and takes bookings for boats other than the five its operates through BIC and Reef Roamers.

But competitors complain their brochures are seldom easily found at the desks, if they are displayed at all. And they charge that even passengers who ask to book their boats are steered away toward BIC.

Free enterprise? Yes. But operators also charge that the desk situation is damaging tourism in Bermuda by giving a limited impression of the range of activities available, while leaving "a bad taste'' in the mouths of many visitors.

Mr. Joffre Pitman, owner of Pitman's Boat Tours, said Tourism Department surveys show that visitors frequently complain there is "not enough to do'' in Bermuda.

"There's plenty to do, but they can't find out about it,'' Mr. Pitman said.

The situation was highlighted in last year's report of the Premier's Commission on Competitiveness. "Unbiased tour desks'' was the number one recommendation of a tour boat operators task force co-chaired by Ms Jill O'Connor of Jesse James Cruises.

A former desk operator at one large hotel, who did not wish to be named, said she was told to push Bermuda Island Cruises over other companies. "I was told I must sell BIC in preference to, say, (glass bottom boat operator Bermuda) Water Tours,'' she said.

The desks have brochures for other tour operators, "but they're not put out very much, and sometimes they're not put out at all,'' she said.

"I don't think an operator should operate a desk in a hotel,'' the woman continued. "They should belong to the hotels and be absolutely non-committal.'' Mr. Doug Shirley of Bermuda Barefoot Cruises, said he has frequently checked BIC desks and found his brochures "behind the desk'' or "vanished''.

"It is a gross disservice to the guests who are paying top dollar to stay in hotels and are not getting full, unbiased information so that they may make their own decision on the activity most suited to their desires,'' Mr. Shirley said.

BIC chairman Mr. Donald Morris confirmed that agents who staff the desks receive commissions for booking his trips, but not for booking other operators.

He also admitted BIC will "push'' its own trips. But BIC pays a monthly fee to the hotels, as well as the wages of those who staff the desks. "It's free enterprise,'' Mr. Morris said.

"We do an all-day trip to St. George's, private parties, and glass-bottom boat tours. That's the only thing BIC has. We push those trips. If people book them, they book them, if they don't, they don't.'' Mr. Morris dismissed charges about an incomplete representation of Bermuda's tourism product as "a crock,'' and "garbage''.

"We book anything that people want to buy,'' Mr. Morris said. "We don't not sell anything.'' "Those tour boat operators have to realise that you never get what you deserve in business, but in most cases you get what you negotiate,'' he said.

"Instead of sitting back and complaining, not one of them has come in to see me to make a deal.'' Already unhappy about BIC's competitive advantage, other boat operators were further incensed last year when BIC hiked its commission rates. When a BIC tour desk does book a visitor on a competitor's boat, it now takes a 15 percent cut, up from ten percent.

Questioned about what further deal Mr. Morris was looking for from the boat operators, Mr. Morris said: "We'd have to sit down and chat. They've got to come up with a plan, and see if they could strike a deal with us.'' Asked about Mr. Michael Hayward, who offers snorkelling/glass bottom boat tours, Mr. Morris said Mr. Hayward had "made a deal'' with BIC.

"We do his reservations and sell snorkelling for him,'' Mr. Morris said.

Hotel tour desks under fire "He pays us so much a month to answer the phone for him.'' BIC, which already operated the tour desks at Hamilton Princess, Southampton Princess, Elbow Beach, and Sonesta Beach, recently acquired the desks at Marriott's Castle Harbour and Grotto Bay.

Grumblings about unfair treatment are not new. Mrs. Roxy Kaufmann, editor of Preview, confirmed she "raised a stink'' several years ago about staff at one BIC desk clipping competitors' ads out of her visitor magazine.

Mr. Chet Williams, who was in the glass bottom boat business until he turned Bermuda Water Tours over to Mr. Bruce King about seven years ago, said "there were problems'' until he moved into the sailboat business.

"They've entered into a contract,'' Mr. Williams said. "It's a cost to them to operate the desk, and they're trying to offset the cost of operating the desk by steering people toward their trips.'' Now that he is offering sightseeing on two sailboats he owns which do not compete directly with BIC, Mr. Williams finds the desks "have always been fair''.

Mr. King declined to comment.

Mr. Nigel Prescott, owner of tour boat operator Tam-Arina, said "the visitor to our Island is just not getting a fair shake''.

Mr. Prescott estimated his bookings from BIC desks amounted to "less than $1,000 in ten years''.

"The only reason they've called on me from time to time is that they've gotten overbooked,'' he said.

And BIC has "refused'' to display his brochures, because Tam-Arina is in "direct competition with their business'', he said.

Mr. Prescott, a charter operator of the 110-foot motor yacht Lady Tamara , said visitors who have tried to book his boat at the desks were told no space was available.

"The hotel feeling is that it's one less headache for the social desk to be operated by an independent other than themselves,'' he said. And, "I can honestly say if I was in BIC's position, I would probably do the same thing.'' Mr. Pitman said while the desk arrangement is easier for the hotels, it hurts visitors. If hotel staff or a third party like the Chamber of Commerce cannot operate the desks, the tour boat task force of the Commission on Competitiveness proposed a Centrex system at the hotels.

It would involve a complete brochure rack with single or multiple telephones directly linked to tour operators.

"The cost of the service is borne by the operators,'' the report said.

"There is no cost to either the customer or hotel.''