regular visitor figures and the addition of Lantana Colony Club to other hotel closures is very serious indeed.

In May regular air figures were down and cruise figures were down but, as we see it, the much more significant factor is that visitor dissatisfaction is up. It might seem that with declining figures we should be able to take better care of the visitors we have but that is not the case. As numbers decline it is more difficult for hotels to keep up their facilities, their standards and such things as entertainment.

When satisfaction declines, any resort is in serious trouble. More that 50 percent of visitors are no longer saying that they are anxious to return to Bermuda and less and less visitors are happy with traffic and transportation.

We all remember when the satisfaction rate was high. Satisfaction is so important because word of mouth advertising is the most important.

Whenever we read hotel occupancy figures we must remember that those figures are higher and better for the hotels involved simply because so many guest properties have closed. Closing facilities decreases the variety available and prevents a spread of visitors over the Island in the boom periods. Far too many smaller, more Bermudian and more reasonable places have closed.

If Mr. John Casling is correct in the Mid-Ocean News story last Friday then 41 places, big and small, have closed since 1977. That is frightening. What is more frightening is that a number of them have been good operations.

If this continues what will be left? Will Bermuda still be a significant factor in the tourist industry or will the best of the islands totally change into an international company destination with business hotels? Right now tourism in many places is expanding.

We do not understand why the Ministry of Tourism kept on the same advertising agency after the debacle of the Let Yourself Go campaign. Surely it was time for a new approach by a new agency.

There is nothing wrong with international business but it and tourism are complementary and both are necessary. One provides good jobs for the Bermudians we have educated to high standards and the other provides lucrative incomes for other Bermudians. We need them both.

We all have to remember that if things begin to go wrong in Bermuda then international companies are much more fickle that tourists. The horror time would be when the tourists were unhappy and the companies were no longer comfortable in Bermuda, and both declined. Then What? Bermudians have to think about that seriously.