The decision to shift oversight of the Stonington Beach Hotel from the Bermuda College to a board supervised by the Tourism Ministry signals the virtual end of a dream which envisioned a "living classroom" for the future employees of the hotel industry.

The Tourism industry's problems and the consequential decline in the number of people studying the field at the College has caused both deep financial losses and a loss of purpose for the hotel.

That is a shame, because at its best, Stonington provided good value for visitors and almost unique hands-on training for students.

But the time may well have come for a change. As College chairman Jan Spiering noted in Saturday's Royal Gazette, the hotel's problems have worsened to the point that it required a $2.5 million bail-out.

At the same time, the lack of students means that it is no longer fulfilling the purpose for which it was built.

If there were more students using the facility to learn, then the College and the Government might be able to stomach the losses. But it is now just another struggling hotel and begs the question of what the Government is doing in the hotel business.

And it is debatable whether an oversight committee will do any better.

The Tourism Ministry, as it is currently constituted, is no more a hotel manager than the College is, and it could be argued that it should not have direct links with any property if its remit is to represent the whole of the tourism industry.

It is worth noting that the College is not severing its links with the hotel altogether and whoever takes on its management will still train hospitality students.

It might make sense for Government to simply lease the real estate to the management company as it has done in the past for the Club Med site in St. George's. One condition of the lease would be for the managers to train students for a fee paid by the College.

Then the hotel could succeed or fail on its own terms, rather than having the Department of Tourism and Government involved any more than necessary.