Seeing tourism's decline

June 21, 2010

Dear Sir,

This was sent to Dr. the Hon. Ewart F. Brown JP, MP Premier and Minister of Tourism and Transport and copied to The Royal Gazette.

Dear Dr. Brown,

As regular visitors of Bermuda from England, my wife and I have been surprised and disappointed to witness some of the changes that have taken place over the last few years. In Hamilton it began with the closure of Triminghams, that very popular and colourful store now replaced by a characterless HSBC bank. It continued with the move of the excellent sea food restaurant, The Harbour Front, to the eastern end of East Broadway making its accessibility inconvenient for the majority of tourists who stay in the city. On our last visit in May we were extremely dismayed to observe the total demolition of Waterloo House, which was a delightful hotel and restaurant, to be replaced we understand by a combination of offices and con condominiums. To add insult to injury, an extremely ugly concrete grey car park has been constructed on a site directly opposite to where Waterloo House once stood. We noted that the car park appeared to be significantly underutilised.

The situation in St. George's is considerably worse. Several restaurants, including the elegant Carriage House, are closed with no apparent effort being made to reopen them (with the exception of the old 'Café Gio'). The once excellent executive golf course is closed, derelict and unplayable. The very pleasant golf clubhouse, Mulligan's, has been demolished. We understand that the site is to be redesigned and redeveloped by the Hyatt Group. However, there was no on-site activity in May and local opinion indicated a period of at least three years before we are likely to see any golf playing availability.

Why are you apparently destroying some of the very infrastructure that supports tourism and attracts visitors to your island? Waterloo House was a charming piece of Bermudian heritage dating form 1815. Why destroy it and further depreciate the immediate environment by building an eyesore of a car park that very few appear to use? Since the Park Hyatt Group clearly is in no hurry to invest time and money in St. George's Golf Course, why have you abandoned it, allowing it to decay and thereby denying its use to the many people, both local and tourist, who enjoyed a round of golf followed by a beer and a sandwich at Mulligan's.

Bermuda appears to be developing in a way that favours the finance and insurance industry to the detriment of tourism. The tourist industry is bemoaning the falling number of available beds year on year and the hoteliers are reported to be struggling to stay in business. The general cost of living is high and the individual tourist faces a very high rate of expenditure for the privilege of spending even a few days in a Bermuda hotel. Our hotel bill in May included $57.91 per day in government taxes and compulsory gratuities alone. When the cost of restaurant eating and drinking is added, we were not surprised to observe a considerably smaller tourist population on the island in May this year than in previous years.

Assuming it is your policy to have a thriving tourist industry in Bermuda we believe that your government, as the enabling body, needs to change the balance of emphasis in Bermuda's development. the cost of a temporary stay on the island needs to be made more attractive to the holidaymaker's pocket instead of being aimed at the business man's expense account. Encouragement and incentive should be given to local people who would jump at the opportunity to open and develop a guesthouse, hotel, restaurant or shop if only the demand existed. An equal voice should be given to the requirements of the tourist when planning the future infrastructure of buildings and transport. In particular St. Georges, where Bermuda's history began, should be revitalised as Bermuda's cultural centre and cruise ships of the smaller variety should be encouraged to dock in the harbour once more.

We sincerely hope that you will be able to turn around what we see currently as a declining tourist industry. If the environment continues to be unsympathetic to the eye of the tourist and the cost of a stay on the island remains as high as it is, we fear that our long and happy association with Bermuda may well be coming to an end.

GEORGE J.L. COX

West Sussex, England