SHADOW Tourism Minister David Dodwell yesterday urged the Government to try again to persuade Carnival to repeat the mega-ship schedule that has given a boost to Dockyard this year.

His comments came after Carnival last week announced it was scrapping plans for three mega-ships to make regular visits to the island in 2004 because of scheduling constraints at Dockyard.

But Mr. Dodwell did not lay the blame for the loss of the ships at the door of Tourism Minister Ren?e Webb and said Bermuda could have been overstretched, had it agreed to Carnival's demands.

"It's a dilemma, an extremely difficult situation and I'm not, in any way, criticising the Government," Mr. Dodwell said. "What I would do is to go back to Carnival and see if there is any way they could go back to the schedule we just had.

"The passengers were happy and Dockyard retailers were happy.

"We clearly need a weekend ship and I feel desperately sorry for the Dockyard retailers and all the investment and time they have put into looking after these ships."

Carnival had asked for schedules which would have seen the ships moored at the West End during the week.

"We would overstretch Bermuda if we added more ships when other ships were already here," Mr. Dodwell said. "We are already at comfortable carrying capacity now.

"I think our obligation and responsibility has got to be to the cruise lines we already have under contract.

"But clearly we need a weekend ship and it will not be easy to find one. The cruise line have issues about being a distance from Hamilton, though I happen to think that being at Dockyard is an advantage."

Carnival announced that it would be sending the 2,000-plus capacity ships on a different route in 2004, taking in Bahamas and ports in Florida.

But Mr. Dodwell said it was worth going back to the company to try to arrange some occasional visits, as the island stood to lose so much.

"I think we should not give up, we should go back to the table and try to convince them to come back," Mr. Dodwell said.

"There are no winners in this situation. The country is losing a large amount in passenger tax and in revenue to retailers and service providers."