The second quarter tourism figures are being spun as the "slowdown to the slowdown", and that's about the best that can be said about them.

The reality is that the figures are dismal.

That's not altogether surprising. With the US still in recession, visitors were always less likely to travel to overseas destinations, if at all. There was not a great deal Bermuda could do to change that.

And the Island's group and conference business was knocked badly as US corporations, especially those that are recipients of taxpayer money, tried to show how prudent and parsimonious they could be. Again, there was not much Bermuda could do about the so-called AIG effect.

Monday's press conference was thinner than usual when it came to statistics, most notably on visitor spending, which is more important than raw arrival figures. These figures should be released. Based on the retail sales figures that were released last week, and the fact many hotels have been discounting, those numbers are likely to be bad as well.

One area that was especially surprising was the cruise sector, where arrivals were lower than last year in spite of the fact that the Heritage Wharf came online in early May and cruise calls should have increased over last year. It may be that any increase will be seen in the third quarter.

Still, not everything is out of Bermuda's hands. New newspaper advertising only began a couple of weeks ago, while television advertising is going to be rolled out in "a couple of weeks". But today is August 19. Bermuda's main tourism season is two thirds over without a meaningful advertising effort. It is worth noting that Jamaica, which has had a very aggressive advertising campaign, is one of the few destinations to show an improvement in arrivals this year.

The chaos over the New York City tourism office means that there has been no real marketing in Bermuda's main market this year.

Much money has been wasted on events like the Bermuda Music Festival and the Love Festival when it could have been spent on direct marketing.

But Bermuda was always going to have a difficult job in straitened times because it still cannot show that it can deliver value for the amount of money it must charge visitors simply to break even. And that is the true failure of the Ministry of Tourism over the last decade.