Winter occupancy levels at Bermuda’s larger hotels could be the worst in decades, an industry head said yesterday.Between January and March 2010 the seven largest hotels on the Island reported 35 percent occupancy, down from 37 percent in 2009.Those months have always been lean for hotels on the Island but Bermuda Hotel Association spokesman John Harvey said business was down more so than usual this year.He did not have the latest statistics from the Island’s hotels as the organisation is understaffed and has not compiled the monthly reports yet.“But I know it’s down, down,” he said. “That’s what everyone has been saying at our meetings.”The Department of Tourism has not yet released the October December 2010 visitor arrival report, which indicates how many people flew to the Island, how much they spent and where they stayed. Nor has any information been released regarding January.So far 2011 has proved to be a grim year for the industry.In January Newstead Belmont Hills Resort went into receivership after Butterfield Bank announced it had recalled a multimillion-dollar loan from the owners of the luxury private property.International audit firm Ernst and Young will manage the day-to-day operations with the view to sell it as a going concern.This month the Government announced it had granted in-principle planning approval, through a special development order (SDO) to Rosewood Tucker’s Point resort to build 78 private residents and 70 additional hotel rooms on their 240-acre property.Hotel president Ed Trippe has said the SDO is vital to the property’s future financial viability and that residents must face the stark reality that the Island’s industry is in peril.Former Tourism Minister Ewart Brown’s had proclaimed 2011 and 2012 would be the beginning of Bermuda’s platinum period of tourism.Twelve of the last 13 quarterly reports have shown a decline in the number of air visitors coming to the Island.In 2009, 235,860 visitors flew to Bermuda, a 10.53 percentage drop compared to 2008.The most recent annual figure showed a 33 percent decline compared to the number of people who flew in a decade earlier and a 43 percent decline compared to 1989.Not only is the current winter season lean for the Island’s hoteliers, they are coming off their worst summer season in 31 years.Between July and September 78,806 visitors flew to the Island.It was the lowest number of air arrivals during Bermuda’s peak season since the modern recording system started in the 1980s; in 2000 approximately 109,000 visitors flew to the Island in the third quarter.As for how this is impacting workers Mr Harvey said hotel workers were traditionally laid off during the first three months of the year and were recalled if the number of guests deemed it necessary.“What I can say is that our forecast for the first three months of 2011 is not very exciting,” he said. “Therefore the recall of employees would be less. People will be laid off.“We have a lay-off programme that’s on a rotating system. You get to work three days a week. That’s all depending on the individual hotel occupancies.”Mr Harvey said the forecast for later in the year was not necessarily gloomy as the Fairmont had some group bookings and other hotels were projecting increases in occupancy.“And so that’s good news,” he said. “When those hotels achieve that, they will be looking for the appropriate amount of staff.“We fill up in June. Hopefully we achieve a satisfactory amount of business throughout the summer months.”