will do this summer, things are not too good elsewhere. According to a recent story in The Tribune, Nassau's Bay Street is in a slump. One major Nassau retailer has said, "It's been the worst year in our history.'' It appears that a decline in the number of cruise ships calling at Nassau has dealt a heavy blow to Bay Street and that has been added to by a decline from 13 to six in the number is ships overnighting in Nassau. The latter means less time for shopping and no time for Nassau's night life.

There seems to us to be a warning contained in some of the statements in The Tribune's story. The newspaper says, "Cruise ships are spending more time at sea making money in onboard shops and casinos than on land. Faced with fierce competition, the ships are discounting ticket prices, and then making money back from onboard activities.

"About 60 percent of cruise ship passengers worldwide are repeat visitors who get tired of the same destination offering the same product. About ten percent of passengers do not bother to get off the ship in Nassau, and about one third stay on board their ship in Freeport.'' Last year cruise ship passengers contributed $95 million to the Bahamian economy which represented a drop of 1.7 percent over the previous year. Cruise passengers on average spend $60 in Nassau.

Bermuda has been in the happy position in recent years of having more ships wanting to call here than we have thought it sensible to accommodate. The number and variety of cruise ships is increasing and Bermuda is in an ideal location for a one-week cruise. Still there are problems.

The amount of spending is uncertain and onboard shopping facilities continue to become more elaborate. The size of many cruise ships is increasing and both of Bermuda's harbours can only accommodate smaller ships and passengers seem more and more reluctant to buy cruises where tenders will be used. Clearly Bermuda will have to take a hard look at its dock facilities. There are also future problems with both Town Cut and Two Rock Passage.

We have some doubts about how hard Bermuda works to keep the cruise visitors happy. It does seem that they often get "end of the line'' consideration and high taxes and are more or less told to "take it or leave it''. Bermuda seems to deal in "business as usual'' rather than plan for future tourism. That will not work, just ask the retail sector.

Bermuda needs to take a hard look at how it treats all of its visitors and it needs to take a look at the value and the service visitors receive in Bermuda.

We must recognise that tourism is not bouncing back the way we would like it to. Part of that is due to increased competition and part of it is due to the sluggish economy in the United States. However, we must not fool ourselves into thinking that is the whole answer. A large part of the problem is the vacation which expensive Bermuda supplies. We should be preparing now for Cuba as a competitor.

Cruise ship visitors need to be included in our forward thinking. Clearly cruise passengers are not as valuable to Bermuda as a whole as regular-stay visitors but they do support the retail sector, taxis and cycle rentals. It has been said in the Bahamas, now that things are bad, that "everyone underestimated the value of the cruise ships''.