It's unfortunate that the visit of the Freedom Ship Amistad has become embroiled in the argument between the Island's tour boat operators and the Government over duty relief.

It's unfortunate because it unquestionably throws a shadow over the ship's visit and will do something to negate the valuable and inspiring lessons that have been learned from the replica ship's visit.

In the end, the Amistad would seem to have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back for the tour boats, who must be believed when they say that they have been struggling to make ends meet in recent years.

Clearly, it added insult to injury to see the Amistad come and offer cut-price rates for charters when the ship's operators faced few of the Government-imposed up-front costs like duties and taxes that the commercial operators must deal with.

However, the sponsors of the Amistad would argue, with some justice, that she was only here for a few weeks, that there are no guarantees that the visitors and residents who sailed on the Amistad would have sailed on the tour boats, and that the overall value of the replica ship's visit far outweighed the pain that it may have caused the local sector.

The more serious issue is the overall condition of the tour boat sector, and by extension the entire tourism industry. The tour boat operators face the same problems that the entire industry faces and has faced for years now.

The "high season" is shorter than ever, the structural costs of doing business in Bermuda are higher than ever and force the operators to charge higher prices than similar operations in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Even then, they still cannot be sure of making a profit.

The tour boat operators have an additional gripe, in that other parts of the tourism industry including restaurants and hotels, get duty breaks that they say they do not.

This is not entirely accurate, since the Finance Ministry says it has offered duty relief to the operators for years. The operators counter that it can take a year to get the relief which must then be paid back within four years, which is shorter than a good many bank loans.

So the operators do seem to have a case to make, as do so many other parts of the tourism sector. If the closure of Trimingham's proved anything, it surely showed that the demands for tax relief from those businesses who are central to the success of tourism were genuine, and it would be wrong to doubt the veracity of the boat owners.

It can be argued, as it was in the case of Trimingham's, that the onus for turning around their businesses lies first with the owners, who need to be innovative, to become more efficient and to provide a product that Bermuda's visitors actually want.

But it still begs this question: If, having done all of that, tourism-related businesses still cannot make it, how serious about tourism is Bermuda, and should Government not do something to try to provide relief in order to give the sector a fighting chance?

After all, if Amistad can get duty exemptions and so on in a matter of hours, shouldn't Government move a little more quickly than the next Budget to give aid to tour boat operators and the like before they join so many other businesses and hotels in the graveyard of Bermuda tourism?