hotel business, the retail business needs in this Island is people, more tourism. We haven't been getting the number of visitors over the last ten years that we need to make business viable.'' That was part of the statement in yesterday's Business section of this newspaper by Llewellyn Harvey following the closure of his Once Upon A Table restaurant on Serpentine Road. Mr. Harvey's closure comes at the same time as the closure of the Loyalty Inn in Somerset and immediately follows the receivership of Romanoff's on Church Street.

None of these were "fly by night'' operations. All three were substantial businesses and all had been open for years. Mr. Harvey has also said, "... with a shrinking tourism market for Bermuda, we could no longer operate on promises each year that things would improve''.

It is true that the restaurant business is tough and demanding and it is probably also true that Bermuda has too many restaurants with similar menus and similar prices. But many businesses held on through the recession expecting that as the recession ended things would get better for Bermuda. For those businesses which rely on tourism for their profit margin, things simply did not get better. As Mr. Harvey has said: "... we could no longer operate on promises...'' As far as we can tell, there have not been many promises but there have been statements which seem designed to mislead the public. Several times now we have heard from the Ministry of Tourism about the success of their promotion programmes. Just how that success is judged is a puzzle because it is hardly reflected in better visitor figures, despite signs that July tourism figures will be marginally better than last year's.

Yet we fail to detect any great public concern over the state of tourism except on the part of a hard working Minister. We have to wonder what it will take to convince people that one pillar of Bermuda's economy is collapsing. We detect an attitude of: "A few restaurants are closing but we have plenty of restaurants.''It might take the demise of a major retailer but the reaction to that could be a predictable: "They were too expensive anyway.'' Where is the concern? Restaurants and retailers are a major part of the total package Bermuda offers to visitors. Once again, they have not had a good season and the slow months are fast approaching.

Will it take the closure of another major hotel? There are repeated rumours that just that could happen during the coming slow season. Other resorts are building hotels. Bermuda has been closing both large and small properties. Any number of those which are still open are having a struggle.

What is the response? "Maybe, just maybe, next year.'' That was not good enough for Llewellyn Harvey and it will be too late for the Government if another hotel closes.