industry.

Figures on June's tourism arrivals released by the Department of Tourism contain good and bad news. The good news? Tourism arrivals are slightly up on 1998 for the month. The bad news is that they are still down for the year -- and 1998 was the worst on record since the early 1970s.

A marginal increase in bed nights suggests that visitors are spending about as much money as they did last year, but while the figures seem to confirm that tourism's declines may have "bottomed out'', there is no sign of recovery yet.

And the situation seems likely to worsen later this year when Marriott's Castle Harbour Resort closes for lengthy renovations.

Here there is good news and bad news as well. The good news is that Government and the Bermuda Industrial Union are making a concerted effort to find jobs for the staff of the hotel.

The bad news is that, at least according to the interviews conducted by The Royal Gazette yesterday, this may be the last time many of the Bermudians employed at the hotel work in the tourism industry.

Some older employees -- the backbone of the industry for decades -- seem likely to take their redundancy payments and retire. Meanwhile, younger Bermudians, seeing hotels closing and no new ones opening, are seeking employment in other fields.

All the effort in the world to rebuild tourism will be meaningless if Bermudians turn their backs on the industry.

The same applies for non-Bermudians who have worked in the hotel, sometimes for years. As the number of tourism jobs shrink, so the number of people with experience and knowledge of Bermuda tourism shrinks as well. If that base of knowledge and experience dies, the industry will too.

OFF TO BRIGHTON EDT Off to Brighton Government's decision to attend the annual Labour Party conference in Brighton, England may appear at first glance to be a costly exercise with little tangible benefits.

But, handled correctly, it could pay off for the Island as a way of building closer ties with UK lawmakers and making Bermuda's case for maintaining the strength of the offshore business sector.

If Government, as we report today, intends to take a member of the Opposition with its delegation, that is all to the better as it is important that the Island presents a united front overseas.

Securing continued British support for the Island's stance on tax havens, airline regulation and the clean-up of the former US bases is well worth the price of the trip.