the continued arguments over the Island's advertising campaign, there is some good, long-term news about the tourism industry.

Hoteliers and trade unions, having already negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement without the need for third party intervention this year, have now agreed on a common future for their industry.

A series of workshops and meetings this week are aimed at introducing the plan to all industry partners, but the basic strategy which has been developed by workers and managers alike, should point the industry in the right direction.

This is not an overnight solution to solving the hotel industry's well documented problems; those involved have warned that it could take years to come to fruition.

That may be a good thing; for too long, the answers proposed for the industry's woes have been quick-fixes, invariably requiring someone other than the person making the suggestions to do the work.

Now, instead we have an acknowledgement from those directly involved in all facets of the hotels that the job is not being done, and broad agreement on how the customer can best be served.

To be sure, Hotels 2000 is not the whole solution. Bermuda still needs lower airfares and modern new hotels, but those will not come until Bermuda can demonstrate that it is a viable place to invest, with a dedicated workforce, cost efficiencies and a decent return.

Hotels 2000 represents the last, best chance for this to happen. This unprecedented joining of forces deserves the support of the whole community.

The Monitor Group and its local partner CAG Ltd., which have worked behind the scenes, deserve some of the credit for bringing this about.

The hotel owners and managers and especially the hotels' staffs, deserve the lion's share for sitting down, putting aside their differences and deciding exactly what is needed to put the industry to rights. Now it is the community's job to see to it that everything necessary is in place to make it work.

As Princess Hotel general manager Michael Kaile says in today's newspaper: "If we stumble over and fall, we don't just take a swathe of other people with us. If this industry doesn't succeed, it will wreak terrible economic vengeance on this Island.''