Bermuda Hotel Association (BHA) has given a cautious welcome to Government's new cruise ship policy which calls for port improvements to deal with bigger ships in the future.

BHA President Billy Griffith said the decision to raise the ceiling on cruise passengers from 200,000 to 221,000 - announced earlier in the month - was the best Government could do, because retailers need help.

Mr. Griffith warned that any more passengers than 7,500 a day, the new limit set by Tourism Minister David Allen for next year, would put a severe strain on the Island's infrastructure.

"No hotels anywhere would necessarily welcome an increase in cruise arrivals because it does have an impact on our business, but we are very cognisant of the position we are in and we can't be too greedy," he said.

"There are other stakeholders such as well such as retailers, and we are in support of the best balance possible.

"(The increased passengers) is probably the best decision Mr. Allen could have taken at this point in time, given the cards he had to play with in the next 12 months."

Mr. Griffith said he believed the additional 21,000 passengers would come from occasional Carnival ships calling at the weekend, rather than regular contracted ships.

"Any daily capacity of more than 7,500 is going to be something of serious concern unless the infrastructure to move them about, and the shops to support them, is right. The figure of 7,500 is probably the ceiling."

Mr. Griffith said Government has been forced to address the thorny issue of dealing with larger cruise ships which will the replace the smaller ones serving Bermuda, although he admitted he was not sure of the correct solution.

"The ships are not getting any smaller. That's a big, big issue which we have to deal with and I'm not sure what the solution is," he said.

Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL), which signed two contracts with Bermuda on Monday, welcomed the decision to look at improving port facilities to handle the new generation of bigger ships.

"We are building ships for 2000 passengers right now, and the only place in Bermuda that can handle them is Dockyard," said NCL's senior vice-president marketing and sales, Andrew Stuart.

"To offer more flexibility in the future there will be a requirement to add some facilities to cope with the bigger ships, because the industry is moving towards ships in excess of 2,000 passengers."