Retired neurosurgeon and Sarasota resident Horace Norrell found himself arrested at jailed for three days at the end of a birthday trip to the Turks and Caicos last week after someone slipped a 9mm bullet into his luggage, he says.

Hoteliers and tourism officials in the Turks and Caicos Islands scrambled Monday to apply triage to a wound that threatened to erode the archipelago's significant visitor industry.

Forums on TripAdvisor.com and Facebook buzzed with talk of cancellations in the wake of a Herald-Tribune story a day earlier about a pair of U.S. tourists who were arrested at Providenciales International Airport for allegedly trying to smuggle a single bullet apiece out of the country.

We have a fragile economy here that is very heavily tourism-based, said Seamus Day, a Grand Turk investment consultant whose Sand Dollar Investment helps foreigners establish residency or invest in the island chain.

I worked constantly over the weekend and all day today, met with the minister of tourism, met with the Attorney General, trying to put pressure on them to drop this matter, Day said.

He wasn't alone in trying to minimize any damage.

Please tell me that something can be done to stop the PR nightmare that is rapidly going viral on the web re: the two completely unrelated tourists who were charged for possession of one round of live ammunition each, Basia Zaidan-Dallamano, a luxury property manager, wrote to islands governor Damian Roderic Ric Todd on Monday.

Zaidan-Dallaman's Tranquility Property Management & Vacation Rentals Ltd. oversees 10 luxury properties.

The need to do something comes amid high stakes for the islands.

Tourism accounts for about for 80 percent of the British protectorate's gross domestic product, said Stacy Cox, a board member of the 200-member Turks & Caicos Hotel & Tourism Association.

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Resort islands edgy after tourist arrests