point for decades.

With the expected renovation of the Marriott's Castle Harbour resort, another 200 hotel rooms will be lost -- bringing the total losses since 1983 to 1,546 rooms.

But Tourism officials believe the reduction in Marriott rooms will be the "trough'' in the Island's 16-year-hotel decline -- starting the slow recovery of accommodation.

According to the Bermuda Hotel Association, at least 17 properties have closed their doors since 1983 -- reducing the number of available beds by 3,100.

At the height of its popularity, Bermuda could boast around 12,000 hotel beds.

Now it has dropped to 7,000. But Tourism Minister David Allen said he believed an eventual target of between 9,000 and 10,000 was attainable. And he said with the new rooms that may come on line, there will be an emphasis on upscale quality, generating more dollars per room than before.

"There should be two new five star hotels, the markets of these tend not be mass tourism, they are more upscale but less gigantic properties,'' he said.

"Castle Harbour will be reduced by half but will be more luxurious. There is a higher average room rate. We should increase yield rather than succumb to discounting to mass tourism, which places like the Bahamas have resorted to.'' Many properties have been converted to residences, especially as the growth of international business has brought an increase in the number of tenants willing to pay high rents.

That pressure has been felt more by the smaller properties, who have borne the brunt of the closures.

Bermuda Hotel Association executive director John Harvey said: "The list speaks for itself.

"Clearly the investment in the hotel industry over the last two decades hasn't been rewarding. We believe that 1999 will see the bottoming out and going forward after that.'' Mr. Harvey said the industry was peaking when tourism started to take off as a worldwide growth industry.

But as the world moved on, Bermuda was left behind and it took dramatic tourism decline to finally bring the industry to an awakening to the problem.

See Page 2 for closures since 1983 and the revitalisation plans.