Princess Hotels International. Mr. John Price, who visited Bermuda yesterday from Princess headquarters in New York, was responding to recent comments by American tourism consultant Mr. Bert Winterbottom.

Mr. Winterbottom, of LDR International in Maryland, said Bermuda could not "rest on its laurels,'' and had to "make a real and sustained commitment to change.'' But Mr. Price said Mr. Winterbottom was all wrong.

"This is the kind of thing consultants love to say,'' Mr. Price said.

"It's just a superficial view of things.

"People love Bermuda as it is,'' he said. "That's why people come to Bermuda. I don't think we need to make big changes.'' Tourism Minister the Hon. C.V. (Jim) Woolridge has also been highly critical of Mr. Winterbottom's well-publicised remarks.

Mr. Price said the Island had three problems as a visitor destination. The cost of doing business was high, there were labour problems, and "people don't want to come here in the winter''.

"To me, that is the biggest problem,'' Mr. Price said of low winter hotel occupancies.

Despite those problems, neither the Princess Hotel in Pembroke nor the Southampton Princess was losing money, he said.

And winter occupancy at the Princess near Hamilton was the best on the Island, because it catered to large numbers of business travellers.

If Bermuda could attract more winter visitors, labour problems would cool, because there would be fewer winter layoffs, he predicted.

Mr. Price said he did not know the answer to low winter occupancy, but he was confident the Department of Tourism recognised the problem and was working on a solution.

The jury was still out on the 68-degree temperature guarantee as a way of boosting winter visitor numbers, Mr. Price said, adding: "I think it's stopped the erosion of business.'' He said he had nothing new to say about labour problems, while the largest hotels continued talks with Government aimed at getting relief on the cost side.

He also said he did not believe Bermuda needed a new hotel.

Princess would not object to a new Ritz-Carlton on the South Shore, because that could attract new visitors, Mr. Price said.

But the Four Seasons-managed hotel in the Bermuda Financial Centre on the site of the old Bermudiana Hotel "will not attract any more new visitors to Bermuda'', he said. The Princess was one of the objectors to the Financial Centre's development application.

"It will just take from the current people who are coming here, when the industry as a whole is not as profitable, in our view, as it should be.'' Mr. Price said he was not opposed to new golf courses or other new attractions in Bermuda, noting that the Southampton Princess recently announced plans for a bottle-nose dolphin exhibit as a year-round attraction.

Mr. John Price.