the Hamilton Rotary Club on Bermuda's tourism reported in yesterday's edition.

Mr. Masters is heading the Tourism Planning Team of the Commission on Competitiveness. It seems to us that his remarks put the state of Bermuda's tourism today in perspective.

When someone reviews Bermuda's tourism the way Mr. Masters has done, the reality of a not very pretty picture becomes all too clear. As we see it, tourism, Bermuda's business, is like any other business. Periodically you need to take a very hard look at your facilities, your staffing, your goals and your market position. Then you need to make basic decisions for success now and in the future.

Bermuda has been heavily involved in tourism for a very long time. Bermuda led the way in island tourism and established the high standards of service and accommodation which others try to follow. However, Bermuda, the best of the islands, became a bit tired. Bermuda's crown began to tarnish because Bermudians did not polish it as often or as much as it required. Bermuda's expectations of what its tourism could produce in terms of cash became unrealistic. We failed to recognise that there was a line where visitors would pay and be happy but beyond which they would pay and complain and tell others to stay away. Too often Bermuda crossed the satisfaction line.

Mr. Masters has quite correctly pointed out that answers to tourism problems are here at home and not overseas and that we must not rely on the end of the current recession to automatically halt tourism's decline. Bermuda has problems with tourism which were with us before the recession and which have to be solved aside from the recession. The benefit from the recession is that it forced Bermuda to take a hard look at itself.

The brilliance of Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan's concept of the Commission on Competitiveness is that it allows Bermudians to review Bermuda and to make beneficial changes without too much disruption. This commission gives Bermuda the structure to recognise problems and to implement constructive solutions, having discussed those solutions. The Commission can provide for a process of change without undue fuss. The formation of this commission may be the most important decision taken in Bermuda in many years.

Once Bermudians accept that there are problems, then the Country can work toward solutions. Mr. Masters has made it clear that tourism has been slipping quietly and almost unnoticed for a number of years. We think that Bermuda's tourism never really recovered from the industrial strife of 1981. We moved through the spending sprees of the 1980s without any real problems because money was easy, visitors were coming, and it was convenient to take their cash and ignore the problems. With the recession "the chickens came home to roost''.

That is not necessarily a bad thing. If we accept that we have problems and get on with solutions which can be suggested by this Commission them we can emerge stronger and more competitive. However, it may not be easy because we have "had to good'', maybe too good, for a long time.