There’s a changing of the guard at a high-end fashion boutique in Hamilton.

It comes as the owner reflects on the long-term success of her business and the weakened retail performance of today.

Deborah Burgess-Hill has seen business highs and lows since she moved her Jazzy Boutique into the Washington Mall some 34 years ago.

The lows include the steady fall in air leisure arrivals, the true extent of which may have been cloaked early on, in the rise of corporate travel for Bermuda’s insurance and reinsurance markets.

In 1990, some 435,000 people flew to the island according to the Department of Statistics.

Since then, annual air visitor arrivals have only ever topped 300,000 twice (332,000 in 2000 and 306,000 in 2007). In 2023, the number of air visitors rose nearly 22 per cent to just over 185,000.

The continuing tourism decline before and since the pandemic has included the closures of Bermuda’s two largest and most significant beachfront properties (Elbow Beach Hotel and the Southampton Princess Hotel).

Ms Burgess-Hill pointed out: “It was a little different back when we had a tourist business.”

But she recalled: “It was between 2013 and 2015 when I first noticed my business really slow down. I could see the difference and then it got worse and never really came back.”

The decline in tourism not only means fewer tourists as customers, but also fewer dollars in the Bermuda economy for the buying public.

Historical Bermuda Tourism Authority statistics updated in 2020 document the island’s tourism woes.

The analysis on the BTA website notes: “Between 2001 and 2015, there was growth in cruise arrivals and a simultaneous downturn in the number of air arrivals, particularly vacation air arrivals.

“Without a high volume of air arrivals – the biggest spenders in the tourism economy – the tourism industry suffers.

“The BTA’s strategy is to grow air arrivals, particularly vacation air arrivals, which will improve the health of the industry.”

In the years to 2019, air visitor arrivals seemed to be on the right track, from 220,000 in 2015 up to 282,000 in 2018, before falling back to 269,000 in 2019, just prior to the pandemic.

The 2022 figures show estimates of the average air visitor ($1,869) outspending cruise ship passengers ($258) more than seven to one, underscoring the need for more air arrivals.

In 1989, when Mrs Burgess-Hill moved into commercial retail premises on the Church Street level of the Washington Mall, business was good.

She said: “We were very successful and really rolling in the early 90s. Over the years, I was able to educate my daughter and buy a home. It’s a good thing that was done then. Things have changed.

“We are not making a big profit now. It is enough to stay in business, pay staff costs including two part-time employees and the other bills. It’s just not much left over.”

Her daughter, LaShika Burgess, has been with her in the business for nine years and has taken over the buying and other duties as Ms Burgess-Hill prepares to step back towards retirement.

Jazzy Boutique sells ladies clothes and footwear. A companion store, two doors down, is Accessory Box.

The owners concede the slow season is here, but remember the heydays when even this was a busy time of the year for Jazzy Boutique.

Mrs Burgess-Hill said online shopping has had a demonstrative effect: “People are buying at the very last minute. They are buying overseas and if they are not happy with their orders, then they look locally.”

Her daughter added: “It seems people buy something like 60 per cent on line. Online shopping was already going in that direction prior to Covid. But the pandemic just made it worse. We live in a technology world. Everyone is online.”

Ms Burgess stated: “I don’t think the young consumer gets the knowledge passed down to them any more. They don’t get a chance to understand how this is all about us – all of us.

“We need to get back to instilling in young people the need to spend money in Bermuda to support local businesses.

“More tourist spending puts more dollars into local hands. Keeping the dollar circulating in Bermuda is important.

“Local commerce is what supports the economy and then there is the long term effect for things like people’s pensions.”

Ms Burgess said: “Younger parents promote online shopping to their children. They don’t school them on how Bermuda works, the importance of local business to the economy.

“They don’t share the history of Bermuda commerce, how small businesses have kept the island going.”

She added: “I accept that there is a limit to the variety here. People complain. But sometimes they don’t even look to see what is available.

“If people came out shopping like in the old days, I think they would be surprised at what they find in local shops. They are so into their routine of looking online first.”

The owners of Jazzy Boutique are optimistic for a tourism and retail rebound. They expect to see Washington Mall teeming again.

The business moved downstairs two years ago from their longstanding upstairs location.

Mrs Burgess-Hill remembers the move: “It’s hard to forget. Upstairs was like a ghost town.

“Everybody had closed up and moved out. I was the last one standing. It was easy to move down here because they had plenty of vacancies at the time.”