which could net the Island hundreds of visitors will definitely go ahead.

Yesterday Southampton Princess Hotel manager Allan Trew revealed that the resort had reserved 260 rooms for overseas guests arriving for the World Conference of Mayors in November. The Elbow Beach Hotel has also set aside 50 rooms for the convention.

The Southampton Princess had signed a contract with controversial US events organiser Bonnie Marshall, who is coordinating the event.

But the future of the conference was put in jeopardy after the Department of Tourism, which is providing $100,000 in sponsorship for the event, severed all links with Ms Marshall.

And as yet neither the Princess or Elbow Beach have received guest lists from Ms Marshall's company.

Last night Mr. Dodwell, who will be meeting with World Conference of Mayors founder Mayor Johnny Ford later this morning, confirmed that the conference will definitely be going ahead, although he admitted that it now might be on a smaller scale.

"We are going to go ahead with it and I will be meeting with Mayor Ford today,'' Mr. Dodwell said.

"We will be working with them particularly on the marketing of the conference. They have already done a few mailings themselves and we are going to be talking about their database.

"The Southampton has these 260 rooms booked and I am optimistic that they will be able to bring that many people in. It might not be as many people as we were first talking about, but the event is still definitely going ahead.'' TOURISM TOU