New Tourism Minister Renee Webb has had a generally positive response to her appointment as the successor to the late David Allen, and she is entitled to a honeymoon in one of the toughest Cabinet portfolios.

In following Mr. Allen, she will benefit from the work he put in to revive tourism. More importantly, she can learn from his mistakes.

The Hotel Concessions Act put in place by Mr. Allen helped hoteliers, and now restaurateurs, to put in much needed improvements to their properties, many of which were badly dated.

That means that one of the structural problems facing tourism has largely been solved, even though the new hotel/residential developments all appear to be focusing on the residential side first, with the hotel components an after-thought.

Mr. Allen gave the impression that he believed he could save the industry by himself, through marketing and energetic forays into different niche markets.

But marketing, not matter how brilliant, and constant travel could not and cannot solve the deeper structural problems confronting the sector and this is something Ms Webb must remember. The problems of price and service are too deep and too severe for any one person, or any advertising campaign, to solve.

Solving them requires an industry-wide approach that the Bermuda Alliance for Tourism (BAT) is designed to tackle if it ever gets off the ground.

Service is perhaps the easier of the two to resolve, provided the whole community is prepared to accept its obligation to treat the customer as king. That is whhat it will take to restore tourism to the position it once enjoyed.

Every sullen waiter, rude salesperson and bad experience ruins a vacation, and for the cost of one to Bermuda, our visitors should be able to say that it was the trip of a lifetime.

How much can Ms Webb do about this? Not as much as she would like no doubt, but more than she may think. She cannot be everywhere at once, but if she can exhort workers, managers and regular Bermudians to take a a little extra time out to make a visitor's stay a little better, she can use the "bully pulpit" of her Ministry to good effect. Here, Ms Webb, as a PLP Minister, may have an advantage if she can convince unionised workers to take more care and to go the extra mile.

The most intractable problem for Bermuda remains price. Until the cost of a Bermuda holiday can be reduced - both on-Island and in terms of airfares - the Island will always be at a disadvantage to its competitors.

Importation of goods will alway be expensive, while labour costs are higher than they are in US and some Caribbean destinations. Labour relations between hoteliers and the Bermuda Industrial Union have improved enormously in recent years, but some sacrifices by both sides are still needed.

Airfares are also difficult. If JetBlue Airways is indeed going to come to Bermuda, this may add an element of competition between the airlines.

If tourism continues its downward spiral, it will become harder and harder to convince the airlines to continue to service the Island.

There are signs that tourism figures are slightly better than they were in the disastrous 2001 season, and given that tourism arrivals collapsed after September 11, they should show a significant improvement by the end of the year.

But Ms Webb's performance should be judged not on 2001, but on how it compares with five or ten years ago. That is a much tougher task and improvement will only occur if the whole sector is willing to work together.