Yesterday's announcement that a Washington-based investment group is buying the Fairmont Hamilton Princess and plans to spend $20 million on renovations appears to be an endorsement of Bermuda's tourism industry.

It is important to note that Seattle-based Goodman Hospitality Investments is buying the property and that the Fairmont Group will continue to manage the property.

This is a common trend in the hotel industry, and there are examples in Bermuda already ¿ notably at the Elbow Beach, which is owned by Saudi Prince Khalid bin Sultan and managed by Mandarin Oriental ¿ where it works well.

Indeed, hotel chains increasingly want to focus on the business of running hotels as opposed to having capital tied up as landlords, so this should see Fairmont, if anything, working hard on the service end of the property.

What's not known is how much the Goodman group has actually paid for the property, and it would be interesting to see what is considered to be a fair price for hotel real estate in Bermuda.

But on the whole, this is another sign that Bermuda's tourism recovery is taking hold and that overseas investors believe they can make a reasonable return on their investment here. This was not always the case.

Still, Bermuda should take nothing for granted. Much of the recovery is due to local efforts, not least Premier Dr. Ewart Brown's success in attracting more airlines to the Island, which has made air travel much more affordable.

At the same time, the Island has benefited from a number of external factors that it cannot necessarily control going forward. These include the ongoing problems with the US decision to have its citizens carry US passports for all overseas travel which appears to have hurt Caribbean destinations much more than it has Bermuda, the generally buoyant state of the US economy which is always good for Bermuda tourism and the weakness of the US dollar against the pound and the euro which has the dual advantage of deterring Americans from going to Europe and of encouraging Europeans to visit this side of the Atlantic.

None of that means that the improvement in tourism is not welcome, or that, it should not expand in a sustainable way. But there is a real possibility that these factors will not last forever. The passport problems will work themselves out and there are already signs that the US dollar is strengthening at the same time that signs of weakness are showing in the US economy.

Given that, it is vital that Bermuda continues to work hard to deliver value for money, to have facilities that match the best in the world, and most importantly, that the Island delivers superior service for what is still an expensive holiday.

None of this will come as news to Dr. Brown or to anyone concerned with tourism. But the Island's recent improvement (and tourism figures still remain well below those recorded in the 1990s and earlier) should not be taken for granted and that now is the time when efforts need to be redoubled.

On that basis, the Goodman Group's investment is welcome.

l Yesterday's editorial said it was a "mystery" why Labour and Immigration Minister Derrick Burgess failed to attend Labor Day celebrations. As was in fact stated at the rally, Mr. Burgess was unable to attend due to an urgent matter concerning a family member's health, so there was no "mystery".