Dockyard could become Bermuda's cruise ship hub with two Panamax ships mooring up at a time and passengers using ferries and land transport to visit the rest of the Island.

Discussions and deliberations are ongoing with the Island's three current cruise ship destinations Dockyard, Hamilton and St. George's considering their future role as the cruise industry moves towards introducing large Panamax-size ships within the coming years.

Tourism Minister and Deputy Premier Dr. Ewart Brown said he was now coming round to the idea that Dockyard should become the sole cruise ship port on the Island.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Dr. Brown referred to ongoing consultations and talks with the members of the Waterfront Taskforce group, and said: "The Government has no intention of imposing its will on either St. George's or Hamilton. We depend on the people in those areas, in those ports, to tell us what they want.

"It's quite possible that the people of St. George might say, 'you know what, we don't want to try to accommodate these large ships. It's environmentally not what we want and we would rather have people tendered in on the fast ferries'.

"We would look at that and work with the Corporation of St. George and the Mayor. The same for Hamilton. I'm going to look at some plans they have developed.

"Some people think that Dockyard should be Bermuda's cruise port. I am slowly moving towards that position myself because I believe the natural beauty of Hamilton harbour is negatively impacted by the presence of large cruise ships."

St. George's Mayor E. Michael Jones, said the town's Corporation was waiting for computer simulation data to see if the Town Cut harbour can safely accommodate Panamax size cruise ships, but he sees the logic in the Island having one single cruise port.

He said: "You have to look at the infrastructure and ask if we should have cruise ship terminals in St. George's, Hamilton and Dockyard that all have to meet international security requirements with cameras and x-ray machines and such like.

"Is it economically feasible to have five or six terminals on such a small island? Or do you put them all in one place and use fast ferries to move the passengers around?"

Mr. Jones said it was imperative that the people of St. George's were given feedback on the question of the Panamax ships and put forward their input on the way forward for the town's harbour.