The debate over Sunday shopping has broken down into two camps.

In one camp, there are those who value their Sundays off and like the old-style, relaxed Bermuda that is the antithesis of the largely American “all-open all-the-time” ethos that sees sales on public holidays, supermarkets open 24 hours a day and so on.

This group includes some residents, some visitors and some business owners who could open on Sundays now but choose not to. It is not clear if those supermarkets and restaurants have really lost anything by choosing to allow themselves and their staffs to have a day of rest.

The other camp consists of those who believe that Bermuda needs to catch up with the rest of the world and to give customers what they want.

There are residents and visitors who would like to be able to shop on a quieter day when there is less going on and parking is not at a premium. Certainly, a great many visitors - especially passengers on cruise ships making weekend calls - would like to be able to shop.

Some businesses too, would benefit. And there are people who would probably like to earn some extra money by working on Sundays. It is not as if working on Sunday is an alien concept; staff in hotels and public services have done it for decades and gas stations and pharmacies have been open on Sundays too.

Having said that, there is no question that if widespread Sunday opening was allowed, it would be another symbol of the death of “old Bermuda”, along with Thursday afternoon closings and the like.

But Tourism Minister Renee Webb is right when she says that Bermuda must start giving its visitors what they want rather than what suits Bermuda if the tourism industry is to recover.

And perhaps sadly, a large number of visitors - who put food on Bermuda's tables and clothes on Bermudians' backs - want Sunday shopping.

Those businesses that don't want to open don't have to. But those businesses who do want to serve their customers should have the right to choose to do so.

More flights

If the number of air flights serving Bermuda is any kind of indicator of how the tourism season will be this year, then the Island could do quite well.

Government has announced that there will be 17 percent more flights per week to Bermuda this year than in 2003.

That's good news and should do something to lower airfares to the Island - one of the key problems for the tourism industry.

However there should be some concern that Bermuda is heavily dependent on one airline - US Airways - for much of its airlift.

US Airways is in weak financial condition and if it should hit financial difficulties, Bermuda could be hurt. This happened before when Eastern Airlines and Pan-American World Airways went bankrupt.

Bermuda needs to take care that it does not have all it eggs in one basket.