Timeshare legislation ? or the lack of it in this year?s Throne Speech ? has raised questions in the tourism and hotel community.

But the Director of Tourism, Cherie-Lynn Whitter, said this week that the Ministry was in the final stages of reviewing draft legislation and it was still Tourism and Transport Minister Ewart Brown?s intention to present it in the House during this session.

Ms Whitter said the final draft would be presented to the various stakeholders for review first.

Since taking over from former Tourism Minister Renee Webb, who in 2002 promised to amend the legislation to allow timeshare owners to own for longer periods, Dr. Brown has been aggressively pursuing changes to the 1981 Timeshare Act.

The current period of lease is 25 years.

One of the properties which would be affected by changes to the legislation is the St. George?s Club which has the first of its leases expiring in 2009.

Members currently have the ability to extend their leases until 2027, at this time the St. George?s Club Ltd. have the first right to renew their lease with Government for a further 25 years in accordance with the Timeshare Act in its present state.

When the St. George?s Club was purchased ten years ago, 75 percent of the more than 2,500 memberships expired in 2009.

Government then extended the club?s lease until 2027, enabling them to sell lease extensions and at this point, only 20 percent of their membership expired in 2009.

The vast majority of these have expressed a wish not to extend beyond this point as they are now past retirement age and this will give the club the opportunity to sell these memberships to other people.

Shadow Minister of Tourism, Senator Kim Swan said this week that he hoped Dr. Brown would make good on his promise to get the legislation tabled in the House during this session.

By ?this session? he meant ?this side of Christmas?.

?We hope he will use the same commitment he has exercised in the past when it comes to tabling legislation,? he said.

Sen. Swan added that he was pleased to hear of the undertaking, but given the long delay over many years, his main concern was for the frustration the delay had caused in the market place for those who were looking forward to some revisions. this week heard that Government was rumoured to be planning a shift in policy concerning fractional property ownership by non-Bermudians ? similar to the policy shift earlier this year in which Bermudians could no longer sell property to non-Bermudians.

Head of Property Development at Cox, Hallett and Wilkinson, Harry Kessaram, said he had heard these rumours, but so far that was all they were.

Dr. Brown has also denied that tourism had been given short shrift in the Throne Speech.

He said: ?One thing we will not do is make a lot of promises and hollow statements about tourism. There is enough untruth in circulation already.

?The Premier and the Cabinet know that we have a number of initiatives in train. They were mentioned in last year?s Throne Speech.

?We are moving in those directions quite quickly. We are in a roll-out mode right now. You will see evidence, if you haven?t already that there are many things happening in tourism.?

Dr. Brown said the Throne Speech had mentioned the development of the Hamilton waterfront.

?This is not new to the media but what is important is that we are moving along on a rate which we did not anticipate.?