The Opposition says the new Bermuda Tourism ads and similarities with Maine’s campaign show the need for a Tourism Authority made up of professionals not politicians.Shawn Crockwell, Shadow Tourism Minister, said last night: “For Bermuda Tourism to succeed the Island must differentiate itself from the competition.“The creative advertising we saw when Bermuda launched the ‘So Much More’ campaign reflected Bermudians and our visitors at play against the classic Island backgrounds, but it did not clearly position the Island as a unique destination.“The report this week that the ‘So Much More’ campaign bears striking similarities to a campaign launched by the state of Maine helps explain why Bermuda’s unique qualities do not shine through. Both campaigns were developed by the Boston-based Fuseideas advertising agency, with Maine paying significantly less money for ‘More to Maine’ than Bermuda did for ‘So Much More’.“The Tourism Minister has got to assure Bermuda that its new campaign is not simply a repackaged campaign from another destination. We hope that is not the case.”UBP MP Charles Swan also backed a professional Tourism Authority, saying ‘much more’ needs to be done to sell Bermuda.He said: “Some interesting statistics from a 2010 study prepared by DPA of Kennebunk, Maine http://mainearts.maine.gov/arts_media/2010_MOT_VisitorTracking.pdf highlights the following: An 11 percent increase over 2009 levels in overnight visitors — to over 17.5 million;“That families with income of $150,000.00 plus tend to use search engines when planning their trips; Visitors to Maine rely largely on one website, called Visit Maine, for their research and planning; A large proportion of Maine visitors use airline websites in their planning.”Mr Swan said: “Bermuda spends $4.8 million for our 655,000 visitors (note ⅔ of whom come by ship), Maine spends $3.0 million for its 17.5 million visitors.“So, does Bermuda have a good online presence to enable potential visitors to research and plan? Answer, its spotty, but we are there, depending on what one types in.“So, does Bermuda have a reliable one-stop website, such as Visit Maine, to enable bookings? Answer, GoTo Bermuda is, from first glance, a very good site, but needs to be a link on all — or as many as possible — other sites as well.“Other sites, such as Bermuda Attractions, appear to have a high proportion of out of date information. We can do much more in this regard. So, how much do the airlines serving our 21 square miles aid us and visitors via their websites? Answer, at writing, I could only find two airlines with packages to Bermuda - JetBlue and Air Canada. The latter was the only airline package on the GoTo Bermuda site.”He added: “Our government will be hoping for a ten percent increase in hotel visitors next year/season, hopefully boosted by an increase in numbers during our historically ‘off’ season. That’s about 65,000 additional visitors in 2013. At a cost of $73.84 per additional visitor, versus Maines $1.54 per additional visitor. That really is SOOOOO much more!”