Harbour Nights and Destination Dockyard — two of Bermuda's most popular summer events, are set to go ahead this year as planned, despite the impact of the current global economic downturn, writes Alex Wright.

That is according to Diane Gordon, executive vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce, who said that contrary to rumours which had been circulating recently, the two crowd-pulling events would continue a tradition that has gone back 16 years, in the case of Harbour Nights.

But she added that due to the fallout from the economic crisis and budgets and events having to be cut to save on expenses as a result, including a decline in the amount of foot traffic and cruise ships visiting Front Street, Harbour Nights would be reduced to 17 weeks from 24 weeks and run every Wednesday from May 6 to August 26.

Meanwhile, Destination Dockyard will be held every Monday for 10 weeks from June through August 10, instead of its normal start date of May.

"This is so important," she said. "Times are tough, but we cannot stop and I think it is a very bad message if we were to eliminate any of these events, in particular that we are trying to attract visitors to Bermuda and we have to put events on in order to entertain them when they are here.

"Yes, we have cut back a little bit, but we are not getting rid of it completely. We really hope that the community will really dig very deep and support these wonderful two events."