Seems everybody's looking for a bargain this season and tourism is down across the pond:
FORGET boughs of holly. Stores need to deck the halls with consumers. Bergdorf starts its Christmas sale Dec. 3!!! Neither they nor Saks - which hasn't had anyone in it since Winona Ryder - will hire extra help for the so-called holiday rush.
Harrod's of London, the biggest, maybe most famous store alive, is empty. Besides the dwindling number of visitors and the country being expensive, many won't patronize Mohammed Al Fayed's joint because 9/11 makes his Egyptianness unwelcome. Tourism is so weak that 10 Downing Street is working to resuscitate it. Result? Britannia soon announces a unique gambit. Next year every single royal will be some place in some town at the same time, same day, for the same reason - tourism. The Queen will be in London; Duke of Edinburgh in Edinburgh; Prince of Wales in Wales; Andrew the Duke of York will be wherever York is (while his ex, Fergie, will probably be in New York); Edward's so far undivorced wife the Countess of Wessex will be wherever she's told, etc., etc. Prime Minister Tony Blair "blanched" when told how much tourism brings in and how badly it's down. Cindy Adams