AS a direct result of Hurricane Katrina, prospective Bermuda visitors from 14 US states may have to wait some time before embarking on their journeys.

Cleveland's Plain Dealer reported that people who applied for passports before Katrina struck "could be in for a nasty surprise even if their travel plans don't include the Gulf Coast".

Ohio is one of 14 states that send all of their passport applications for processing to the State Department's New Orleans Passport Agency, which processes 17 per cent of the nation's applications and has been shut since last week because of the hurricane.

State Department spokesman Noel Clay said this week that it would be closed "for the foreseeable future".

Travel industry spokesman Brian Newbacher speculated "that more Ohioans might be applying for passports because of a new policy that will require all travellers to and from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Bermuda to have a passport. The new rules are now scheduled to take effect December 31, 2006 for all air and sea travel between those countries."

Before the change from the original plan, concern that the need to get passports by December of this year might reduce the enthusiasm of prospective cruise ship passengers had affected the stock price of industry leader Carnival Cruise Lines, and news of the one-year reprieve had boosted the stock.

Prior to news of the extended period for acquiring passports, a Deutsche Bank analyst estimated that the new rules would have led to a drop of eight per cent in Carnival's revenues.

The State Department is advising people from the 14 states, principally in the Midwest and South, who applied for passports before August 25 and plan to travel in the next six weeks, to contact the National Passport Information Centre.

Mr. Clay said a State Department team is in New Orleans assessing the office's condition and has reported that it appears to be intact despite some water damage and broken windows in the building that houses it.

The new passport rules are part of the Bush Administration's Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, an effort supposedly designed to improve homeland security, and to be implemented in phases.

By 2008, all travellers to and from the US, including those travelling by road to or from Canada and Mexico, will require passports, or cards from other frequent traveller programmes such as Sentri, Nexus or Fast, or will require road travellers to have a Border Crossing card. Those programmes are designed to expedite processing and screening at the Canadian and Mexican borders.

The initiative has led to complaints from critics in Canada and the US who worry that it will affect commerce and tourism, the Associated Press reported.

"The publicity surrounding the new passport requirements is already having a detrimental effect on cross-border travel," said Tourism Industry Association of Canada president Randy Williams. He said that from 2005 to 2008, the new US plan would reduce Canadian tourism receipts by $1.6 million, compared to the $1.5 billion loss caused by the SARS outbreak.

Roy LeBlond, director of communications for Tourism BC, said that outside of British Columbians, Washington state residents make up most of BC's largest short-haul market.

Last year, a half-million US citizens travelled to British Columbia.

Some 60 million Americans, about 20 per cent of the population, hold passports; the US Government issued 8.8 million passports in 2004, four million more than in 1994.

In addition to Ohio, the New Orleans Passport Agency handles applications from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

For the avoidance of doubt, the State Department web site explains that "a passport is an internationally recognised travel document that verifies the identity and nationality of the bearer".