The past years? dismal hotel occupancy rates has forced a well-known resort and apartment complex to close its doors to tourists.

Astwood Cove Apartment Resort in Warwick will no longer be renting its self-contained units to tourists ? so says General Manager, Deirdre Hill. Instead, the units will now be rented out on a monthly basis to short term work permit holders.

?We did not have a good season and business was not steady, so our occupancy rates were not good,? she said.

The move by Astwood Cove owners comes as no surprise to those in the industry as figures provided in October by the Department of Tourism showed lower hotel occupancies in August this year than in the same month in 2004, falling from around 78 percent to 70 percent.

This period has always been seen as Bermuda?s peak season, but many hotels saw occupancies fall below 70 percent for September ? which is generally seen as the break-even point for most hotels.

Few hotels were unaffected by the declining occupancy rates and long established and successful cottage colonies like Astwood Cove saw lower occupancies than they had for years.

A regular visitor to Astwood Cove, Canadian Jim Hardie and his family were horrified to learn that they would no longer be able to stay at their favourite resort. Speaking from Toronto Mr. Hardie said on the very day he was to confirm his holidays for next March, he heard of Astwood Coves? ?demise?.

Since then, the family, which has been coming to Bermuda for the past 30 years, are reconsidering Bermuda as a destination.

Commenting on recent stories in at the increase in cruise passengers compared to air arrivals, Mr. Hardie said: ?We decided that since Bermuda does not seem interested in middle rank tourism any more we will go else where. They seem interested only in business, cruises and very high rollers and we are none of these.?

Besides the Hardie family?s visits to the Island almost every summer ? totalling some 2,160 nights ? the family regularly brought friends and extended family members along. ?Sometimes we brought up to 23 friends with us and it wasn?t just hotels we were supporting, but also bike rentals, golf, restaurants and groceries,? he said, adding that Bermuda was always their number one destination.

But after reading the local newspapers, he felt Bermuda was becoming ?less Bermudian? ? something his friends agreed with. What did he mean by that? Well, he said one of the reasons they all loved coming to Bermuda was because of the temperate climate, it?s uniqueness, safety and how easy it was to get around by scooter ? something missing from other Island destinations.

Even though crime has increased in Bermuda, he still feels it is a lot safer than islands in the Caribbean. Mr. Hardie also felt the ?average? Canadian tourist market was being neglected.

?I can?t say we will never come back to Bermuda because we love the country, but until things change we?ll just find somewhere else,? he said, adding he hoped the Tourism Department from take a lesson from the General Manger of Elbow Beach, Frank Stocek who said: ?It?s so much easier to keep a guest than to find a new one.?