Tourism was given another budget this year of $35,697,000 (down ($223,000), but tourism activist Tony Brannon said the same civil service bureaucrats who contributed to past failure were still in place and Government had no overall blueprint to revive the industry.

But Tourism Minister Renee Webb countered that an overall plan was being worked on.

The public/private sector Bermuda Alliance for Tourism (BAT) is unveiling a strategy on Wednesday which, she said, would contribute to an overall plan.

Mr. Brannon, who owns the Bermuda.com website and set up Tourism Action Now (TAN), said a private Tourism Authority should be set up to do the job done by civil servants.

He told : ?The problem is, money is given to Tourism without a plan and the Minister promised a plan at the public forum on December 4.

?We?ve got the Elliott Ettenberg report which is about re-organising the structure of the department, the North American office and focussing on the gateway cities, which is all well and good.

?But we are targeting the North American market with the same marketing staff and we have thrown $150 million plus at tourism over the past five years without a plan.

?David Allen was knee-jerking his way all over the place trying to get people from South Africa and Argentina. It was total bull in a china shop mentality, and he was replaced after his tragic death.

?Tourism has been drifting badly in all sorts of crazy directions and still, despite the minister doing the right thing with the Ettenberg report, the bottom line is we don?t see any difference in manpower: the same people that contributed to the failure are still in position.

?We are basically still throwing more money at a bureaucracy that has not been accountable to anyone because of the political situation.

?If it was a business and I was a CEO, given the past record of the Department of Tourism, I would not be the CEO now and the people under me would not be there now.

?The Minister has just not come up with a plan. At the last BAT meeting two weeks ago, everyone from Diane Gordon at the Chamber of Commerce to Ed Willams at Wedco, was saying ?where is the plan??. We can?t start figuring out how to do things better unless there is a five year plan.

?(Transport Minister) Ewart Brown has been signing up airlines from all over the place, and he?s done a great job, but where are all these people going to sleep because there is no plan of what is expected to come on-line in 04, 05, 06, 07, or 08.

?All the planned openings of hotel rooms have not come to fruition. Bermuda Properties (owners of the Tuckers Point Club) promised another hotel (at the former Marriott Castle Harbour site) and they have not lived up to their promise to this day.

?Daniel?s Head is closed and Morgan?s Point is still kicked around like a political football by the Progressive Labour Party.

?The shocking things is that there is no plan and we are giving another $35 million to the same people who have not really performed in the last five years.

?To give the minister some credit, it is because of the politics. The civil service moves at the speed of molasses and it is very difficult for people in the business world living in the real world who are frustrated by the fact that there is no speed at all at times.

?And what is this government going to do about investment, because Bermuda is known as an investment non-friendly place?

?It is out there in all the major American hotel chains that Bermuda is not friendly. It is seen as a difficult place to do business, there is lots of bureaucracy and it takes ages to get anything from the Immigration Department.?

Government needed to promise that if big investors wanted to sink money into tourism, the red tap would be slashed and they would be made to feel welcome, he said.

Ms Webb said last night: ?Because Tony Brannon is not privy to any plans does not mean there are no plans.

?He was privy to the Ettenberg report but all plans are not there for Tony Brannon. My life doesn?t revolve around what Tony Brannon thinks.

?There is a plan, but it terms of a fully developed plan, that is part of the BAT initiative that is being worked through in terms of a number of different lines.?

She said the BAT plan which will be unveiled on Wednesday ?is the plan that they would like to implement and it shows there is much being done in this area. It is all part of the process to develop an overall umbrella plan,

?I am going to go and see the plan unveiled. I know pieces of it but I?d like to see it all pulled together. This is another example of the public and private sectors working together.?