Tourists fail to attend activities organised throughout the Pop and Sizzle season because they are not aware of them, according to a newly released excerpt from the Air Arrival Exit Survey Fall Report.

Previously The Royal Gazette has reported air arrival figures and visitor satisfaction statistics from portions of the document, and asked to see the whole thing. However, the Premier's Press Secretary Glenn Jones said they would not release it because it dealt with strategy.

The Royal Gazette then asked to see the report with the strategy sections redacted. We received 19 pages of the 44 page report.

But yesterday after the Premier was asked to comment on a statement made by Senator David Burch, that visitors were not attending events, a new portion that does not deal with strategy was released.

Last week Sen. Burch told the Senate that tourists continued to dine in many of the Island's restaurants.

He added: "That being said, there is minimal awareness of, and participation in, specific or seasonal special events, suggesting greater effort is needed to promote on Island activities."

The Premier was asked to comment on the statement with regard to events such as the Bermuda Music Festival, PGA Grande Slam and Faith Based Tourism initiatives, on which millions are spent. Mr. Jones replied that the Senator was not talking about those events and had made his statement based on information in the Air Arrival Exit Survey Fall Report.

Mr. Jones then attached portions of the survey, which do not deal with the Tourism Department's strategy, that have never before been released.

It stated: "Although there is strong participation is key leisure activities and attendance to popular sites remains high, awareness of and participation in specific events is low."

Visitors continue to take part in one key leisure activity while in Bermuda, with visiting the beach, swimming, and shopping remaining the most common ones.

While dining out and visiting the Royal Naval Dockyard and Town of St. George continue to be popular as well.

The report continued: "Despite these high levels of participation in key activities and attractions, there continues to be low levels of awareness and consequently low participation in specific seasonal events.

"In fact, only one in ten visitors had heard of either the Reggae Beach Party at Snorkel Park or the Live in the Gardens at Botanical Gardens. Fewer knew of SalsaMania, the Gombey Circle Cabaret, the Howard Rego's Front Line Dance Party, or the Chewstick Neo Griot suggesting Bermuda could do a better job at promoting these events to visitors."

The report was compiled between September 1 and October 31, 2007, and Mr. Jones said many of the events ended in mid-October. Mr. Jones added: "With that being the case it would stand to reason that these programs have low visitor awareness during the fall season.

"Nonetheless, the main message of increasing awareness for these events is not lost on the leaders at tourism — work is constantly underway to improve all aspects of the tourism product."

If Bermuda had Public Access to Information (PATI) legislation The Royal Gazette, and members of the public, would be able to request full copies of Government Reports — such as Air Arrival Exit Surveys done for the Department of Tourism. Last week in the Budget the Cabinet Office was allocated $200,000 for PATI and Premier Ewart Brown said it had always been on the way and Government had supported the public's right to know long before other people started talking about it.