The Government?s latest Quarterly Bulletin of Statistics contains scores of errors in its section on tourism.

The Department of Statistics released a fresh batch of correct figures late last week as Opposition MPs questioned the numbers. The wrong figures gave a distorted picture of visitor spending and employment in the hotel industry.

The true statistics reveal that tourists spent an estimated $159.2 million in the second quarter of this year, an increase of $25 million on the same period last year or a percent rise of 18.6.

Air visitors spent $131.9 million this quarter, compared to $116.3 million for the same quarter last year. The $15.6 million leap amounts to a percent increase of 13.41.

They spent $102.7 million on accommodation and food, compared with $90.5 million in the same quarter in 2005.

The original incorrect figure given for last year was $65.9 million, suggesting a big $36.8 million jump.

The actual increase is $12.2 million or 13.48 percent.

Cruise ship visitors spent $27.3 million in total this quarter compared to $17.9 million in the same period last year ? an increase of 52.5 percent.

In total, the table in the bulletin detailing the estimated spending of visitors contained 29 mistakes. A table on employment in the hotel industry contained 18 errors.

The new figures show that tourist spending for the first half of this year has risen from $184.1 million to $209.7 million ? or by 13.9 percent ? from the same period last year.

United Bermuda Party MPs David Dodwell and Grant Gibbons released a statement last week criticising the bulletin for its ?errors and questionable figures?.

The politicians said the Government was trying to ?spin? a story that the tourism industry was in recovery.

Their statement said: ?The statistics bulletin deepens ongoing questions about the role of spin and deception in relation to the Government?s claims of recovery.

?The United Bermuda Party believes the public should be given the most accurate picture of the tourism industry, of only because the truth will enable people to make more informed choices about the way ahead.?

The MPs also said the Government had changed its methodology for gathering statistics ? such as deciding to include cruise ship crew spending ? without telling the public and that made it difficult for people to ?gauge the health of the industry?.

Government statistician Jo Ann MacMillan told the Mid-Ocean News last week that a new method was being used to calculate visitor spending.

She said that previously published figures for the past two years had been projections based on the rise in the cost of living.

Figures going back to 2004 had been adjusted after the processing of exit surveys by visitors at Bermuda International Airport had allowed statisticians to calculate a more accurate figure.

A footnote to the revised data on visitor spending says that improvements to methodology make comparisons with the historical data no longer possible.