It is up to Bermuda's hotels to resolve concerns about the operation of the Island's tour desks, Tourism Minister the Hon.

C.V. (Jim) Woolridge said yesterday.

"Where there's smoke, there's fire,'' Mr. Woolridge said in response to front page articles in yesterday's The Royal Gazette citing concerns about a tour boat operator controlling the tour desks at Bermuda's six largest hotels.

"I just hope that the managers will take steps to ensure that the person holding the contract is not acting in any way that could be detrimental, not just to their hotel in particular, but to Bermuda in general.'' Mr. John Harvey, executive vice president of the Bermuda Hotel Association, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

After recently adding Grotto Bay Hotel and Marriott's Castle Harbour, tour boat operator Bermuda Island Cruises Ltd. now controls their tour desks, as well as the desks at Southampton Princess, Hamilton Princess, Elbow Beach, and Sonesta Beach.

Other tour boat operators complain that visitors are pushed toward BIC boats and competing brochures are difficult to find, if they are displayed at all.

And they cite several incidents in which visitors have been unable to book boats that compete with BIC, even when they have requested them by name.

The boat operators, who voiced some of their concerns through the Premier's 1994 Commission on Competitiveness, said the situation is hurting Bermuda's tourism industry generally, because visitors are getting a biased and incomplete picture of what the Island has to offer.

Mr. Woolridge said the situation was discussed at the Tourism Department's monthly meeting with the Bermuda Hotel Association two weeks ago.

"We made them aware of the concerns of the ship people,'' the Minister said.

"They were taking this under consideration.'' Some complaints from boat operators related to visitors receiving no information on what they offered, Mr. Woolridge said. "The hotel managers advised us that any literature available ... was available to all people coming there.'' The hotel managers also felt "there was no bias involved'' in the operation of the tour desks.

Asked if he accepted their position, Mr. Woolridge said: "Where there's smoke, there's fire.'' But it was up to the hotels to address any problems.

"The best we can do in the Department of Tourism is bring it to the attention of the managers,'' Mr. Woolridge said. "We have no mandate to tell them what to do.'' The department only had "certain criteria'' it required when granting a hotel licence.

Mr. Woolridge said he had no knowledge of a complaint by Philadelphia businessman Mr. Jed Rhoads, who said he was angered and embarrassed when the BIC-operated social desk at the Southampton Princess Hotel would not book him on Mr. Joffre Pitman's snorkelling boat.

"Things of this nature should be brought to the attention of the manager of the hotel,'' Mr. Woolridge said. "I do not condone it if Mr. Rhoads is so dissatisfied that he will probably not return.'' Mr. Stephen Barker, regional vice president for Princess Properties International Ltd., was off the Island yesterday and could not be reached for comment.

BIC chairman Mr. Donald Morris said tour desk agents did "push'' BIC trips, but he denied that visitors were getting an incomplete picture of activities available to visitors.

"We book anything that people want to buy,'' he said.