Many city centre shops claim they have been hit hard by a fall in the number of air visitors and a shortage of hotel rooms available on the Island.

May was a particularly bad month with sales on Front Street not picking up until the Newport to Bermuda yacht race.

And one retailer said that if the trend continues shops will go out of business.

The overall fall in the number of sales has been blamed on a lack of top end accommodation which is keeping the high spending customers away.

Ian Smith, head of the visitor retail division of the Chamber of Commerce, said: "The major concern is that with so many closures, we have got to be impacted at some stage by the numbers being down.

"Shops have been very proactive in fighting this. The visitor retail has been doing lots of exciting things to boost sales. But at the end of the day, numbers are dwindling.'' He said he and other retailers were looking to grow the retail sector, and not watch it shrink.

He added: "This summer has really been a mixed bag for some shops. Making Waves did a roaring trade during the Tall Ships, because it was their kind of market. The high-end did well during the Newport to Bermuda race. But in general May was a quiet month.'' David Hampshire, President of the Tess Group chain, which runs the English Sports Shop, said something had to be done about the shortage of beds on the Island or all retail trade would suffer because of it.

He said in the past few months he has had calls from friends and business colleagues unable to find accommodation.

He said: "I am an optimist I would like to think that we have the merchandise to sell and hopefully we will continue to sell. But the last year has been a bad year and we cannot go through what we had last year again.

"We have to get more sales or we will go out of business.'' But unlike many of his Front Street counterparts, his sales for May and June were up over last year.

Mr. Smith, who manages Astwood Dickinson on Front Street, said that his shop had done well this year.

"Our sales are on a par this year with last year, but the feeling on the shop floor is that there are less visitors.'' He said that his company broke down monthly sales by the places visitors were staying and that one example of the impact was that normally guests staying at the now closed Marriott used to spend between $30,000 and $50,000 every month.

"And that is not taking into account the impact of the closure of Palmetto or the Belmont. This money has simply disappeared.'' Mr. Smith said that his company had a better sales team which had helped minimise the impact of the sales.

Traders sing tourism blues Mr. Smith added that Bermuda's retail sector had to do more to capture the local market, who were spending more and more overseas every month.

"The figures show millions and millions being spent abroad, and that is just what people declare, we have to make sure we have a strong base here.'' Some sales were boosted by the Tall Ships Race, but this was mainly in the T-shirt and souvenir bracket.

The Newport to Bermuda race saved the day for many shops, boosting sales with high-end customers in most stores.

On the other hand other stores with a purely local market have seen sales improve over the past few months.

A. S. Cooper and Sons president Peter Cooper said that May was not a good month but June was up over last year.

"May was flat, and I believe that is due to the tourist numbers being down.

The air visitors are not here. That was my feeling.

"The Newport to Bermuda race helped a great deal and people involved in that spent a lot of money and we were selling a higher class of goods. I do not think the young folk who were on the tall ships had that kind of money. I don't think they could afford a $2,000 ring, but it brought a great deal of traffic into town.'' Mr. Cooper said May was quieter than it had been in the last few years, but June was a good month.

Alfred Spearing, vice-president of Smith & Co, said that the lack of accommodation had impacted on their trade.

"All this advertising overseas is well and good, but if potential visitors cannot find beds, then some of that is wasted. They may decide not to try next year, but we may have lost them. People need beds to sleep on.'' He said that the company's sales were up in June, but May was soft.

"May traditionally used to be one of our best months. It was when the more well-heeled visitor used to come. The other month was October. Now we cannot count on that any more. All over the Island there are fewer beds for people to stay here and that really affects retail.

"Now there is only Elbow, Sonesta and the Princesses on operation. The 600 beds in the Marriott have gone and that is a significant drop and it is certainly affecting the retailers.'' Mr. Spearing said that sales were not really impacted by the Tall Ships race, but were boosted by the Newport to Bermuda race.

"What we need is traffic in order to do business. And what we don't have at the moment is the traffic and that reflects on our sales.

"It is too early to predict how July and August will do, but it may not be anything to write home about.'' Mr. Spearing said that the numbers of air visitors were sometimes deceptive as the kind of holiday maker coming to the Island had changed.

"The numbers may be up, but many of the visitors are families travelling with their children, so they do not spend as much.'' Bucking the trend were shops catering to locals for trade. George Grundmuller, President and Chief Executive Officer of Phoenix Stores Ltd, said that overall they had done well over the summer. His company runs six pharmacies, a toy store and a book shop.

He said May was flat, but April was also a good month.

"We have had more tourists, and in June the Tall Ships helped. But our main reason for doing well is we have advertised more than in previous years and this is really paying off.'' He said all his stores were doing well, bar Woodbourne Chemist, which has been affected by construction and lack of parking in the area.

Photos by Tony Cordeiro Empty Streets: Front Street (above and right) has seen fewer tourists than ever this year. Hamilton shopkeepers are worried that the dwindling number of tourists coming to Bermuda is starting to impact on them.