Tourism Minister David Allen admitted yesterday it would "not be a total shock" if the Island loses some flights from the US because of the current terrorist crisis, but he is confident that services will continue from the US gateways cities.

He revealed the Island is suspending a planned marketing campaign in the US because it would be a waste of money now as many Americans are too traumatised to travel.

The advertising campaign for the Fall into Spring period will be launched instead in October with the hope that Americans will be receptive then to taking holidays. The first culinary arts festival is being pushed back from November to March next year.

Mr. Allen said the Island's hotels will be offering major concessions to try to entice visitors to come to Bermuda over this period.

In an interview with The Royal Gazette yesterday, Mr. Allen said that, so far, business for October was holding up fairly well.

"Far from folding our tents and withdrawing from the market, we've done a temporary pause to take stock because we would be wasting money in the North East of the US at this time," he said.

"As we pull out of September into October, we will reposition ourselves in the market. One encouraging thing is that reports from overseas offices and contacts with the airlines show a lot of the October business is intact.

"October was shaping up to be good for meetings and a lot of that is holding. I can understand the American market being traumatised, but the Canadian market is not as traumatised and Europe is virtually intact.

"It would not come as a total shock if we lost one or two duplicate airline services, but I am sure we will still have the gateways. The AA flight from Boston has been on tender hooks for the past two years, but I hope we can hang on to that and I'm very confident Delta will hang on.

"I'm confident we can maintain the gateways, although we can't guarantee all three routes out of New York."

All the major US airlines have announced they will be making drastic cutbacks in services and laying-off thousands of workers in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks.

US President George W. Bush is asking Congress to give the airline industry $5 billion in cash as part of an overall rescue package.

Mr. Allen said from now into the second week of October flights coming to Bermuda had load factors of 45-54 percent.

"That's not bad considering some people thought the airlines would be empty. Some flights for early October are sold out for the weekends, so we don't want anyone thinking our winter season has fallen through yet."

Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell yesterday attacked Mr. Allen for not going after the airlines in the immediate wake of the atrocities to offer to guarantee that four or five key flights would break even.

Mr. Dodwell said the Island should guarantee to cover the losses on the flights if they fall below the break-even point of a 65 percent payload.

He said the money could be provided by either Government alone, or in conjunction with the hotels and international business.

This would then give the hotels an incentive to market heavily in the affected areas and for international companies to use those flights.

"If that had happened on selected routes, it would take us over the hurdle of having to worry about air services because if we don't have an air service, nothing else is going to work," he said.

"We needed to meet immediately with the airlines that service us to ensure the service continues, and if they are threatened, to find some way of working creatively with them." He suggested if flights on key routes were in danger of being pulled, Government could scrap landing fees and fees paid by the airlines for some services at the airport.

But Mr. Allen rejected the idea of subsidising the airlines. "Cash handouts to the airlines is a slippery slope. If you do it on a temporary basis it could become permanent and I don't think the taxpayer would appreciate that."