Bermuda has lost at least 274 hotel rooms since the end of 2008.

That is an approximately 11 percent reduction in the number of hotel rooms available at Bermuda Hotel Association properties compared to last year.

And compared to the Bermuda Department of Tourism's room count for 2000 the number of rooms available has fallen by 31 percent, down from 3,308. However, the Department's statistics also include guesthouses that are not members of the BHA.

Shadow Tourism Minister Michael Dunkley said: "The figures on hotel rooms and beds available paints a bleak picture of a continuing downward trend over the past 20 years and perhaps shows an escalation of that trend over the past few years.

"It is unlikely this trend will be reversed until the current economic climate improves, where capital is available for development and demand grows for the use of any type of unit associated with new hotel development.

"We do note the recent public announcement of development that offer some hope but there is much more required."

The closure of the main hotel at Elbow Beach last year resulted in a loss 137 rooms, the biggest single loss during 2009. The 98 rooms at the Elbow Beach Hotel cottages remain open.

And the recent loss of 84 rooms at 9 Beaches, which will remain closed until next spring while it undergoes a massive redevelopment, has also reduced the rooms available to tourists.

The loss of 24 rooms at Grape Bay Beach Hotel, which has been leased to the Bermuda Hospital Board to house nurses, and the closure of Waterloo House have further impacted the reduction in hotel rooms available in Bermuda.

The Bermuda Hotel Association has 34 members across the Island including the largest hotel, Fairmont Southampton with 593 rooms, right down to Little Pomandar which has five rooms.

There are currently 2,251 hotel rooms available at BHA properties. And if the Bermuda Hospitals Board leases out Horizons & Cottages, which they are currently in talks to do, the number will drop to 2,206. Last year there were 2,525 hotel rooms available through BHA properties.

Sen. Dunkley said losing hotels to local use was not a positive thing.

"It is disturbing to learn that former hotel properties are now being used on a regular basis for housing not related to our visitor industry.

"While this might plug immediate on-island needs it indicates the government has no faith in its multi-million dollar marketing efforts to attract visitors or as one of my colleagues once said heads into beds.

"It sends a less-than-positive message to the industry and says to us tourism remains on the wrong track."

Sen. Dunkley also questioned whether Premier Ewart Brown, who is responsible for tourism, had given enough type of leadership to the industry.

He added: "We are under no illusion that there is any one solution or a quick fix to this problem.

"It is clear that there are many steps that must be taken to restore health to Bermuda's tourism industry.

"We have in the past and will do in the future offer our thoughts on action that is required, but without any public announcement by the government of an integrated plan that deals with marketing, promotion, activities, facilities and service who can blame us for being skeptical that we are headed in the right direction?"