The Virgin Islands tourism industry is balanced for a major bound in the number of its accommodations that will be timeshares rather than hotel rooms - and industry leaders are coming up to see how the shift could modify both visitors' habits and the revenues that tourism produces for the government.

The Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas in June ended converting 48 of its hotel rooms to two-bedroom luxury timeshare suites, addition the units to its 80 Ritz-Carlton Club "partial possession" units.

The Westin St. John Resort & Villas is varying more than 186 hotel accommodations into 94 two- and three-bedroom vacation villas, adding up them to the 93 villas the resort already had offered for timeshare ownership. Once the Bay Vista exchange project is finished, the alternative will have just 100 normal hotel rooms left.