An announcement will soon be made on a new hotel project, Premier Ewart Brown said on Friday.

He told the House of Assembly that there was plenty of positive tourism news, including the launch of the Bermuda Hospitality Institute, the new cruise ship terminal at Dockyard, the arrival of WestJet, the redevelopment of Coral Beach and plans for Lantana, the Somerset property which is to be turned into a 100-room hotel.

"This afternoon, I'm going to travel to Lantana, a property that has been left desolate and unused for decades," he said, adding that he was going to watch the land be cleared so work could start.

Tourism Minister Dr. Brown said the Opposition liked to focus on negatives even though there was plenty to be positive about.

"In the next couple of weeks I'm going to be holding a press conference to announce another project which was funded yesterday," he said.

The Premier added that he was not going to reveal the name yet because "I want you to think about it and think about the positive things".

His comments came after heavy criticism from Opposition leader Kim Swan on the state of Bermuda's tourism industry.

Mr. Swan said the lack of overseas visitors was badly affecting small businesses and urged "caring, compassionate understanding" for the "men and women on the front line".

Dr. Brown said he was willing to share information with members on the other side of the House on how tourism was progressing but understood that they may prefer to play the "game" of scoring political points.

"I'm urging members of the House to get a grip on what we are really doing in tourism," he said. "As we are going to find out, tourism is the only pillar [of the economy] that is not sensitive to legislation in other countries."

Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons said the UBP did not view tourism as a game but took it very seriously.

He said 2009 saw a $70 million drop in visitor spending from the previous year and "2008 was some $100 million less than in 2007".

Dr. Gibbons said Government ought to be working much more aggressively with hotels to help reduce their costs. He said hotels typically spend five percent of their revenue on energy costs but this could be drastically reduced if on-site combined heat and power plants were introduced.

"We shouldn't be reliant on one single plant," he said, referring to Belco.

The UBP MP said combined heat and power plants had worked in Barbados and should be looked at here, giving hotels the chance to improve efficiency by using waste heat to produce fresh water, chilled water for air conditioning and steam.

Any savings on energy, he argued, would help the profitability of hotels struggling in the high-cost environment of Bermuda. He said the power plants could be a sustainable alternative for generating energy.

Energy Minister Michael Scott, who launched a solar hot water plant at Tucker's Point Hotel earlier this year, told The Royal Gazette yesterday: "I am fully supportive of combined heat and power plants for hotel properties and was encouraged by Tucker's Point Hotel being an early adopter.

"At the launch I expressed the hope that other hotel properties would pursue sustainable, renewable facilities at their properties. I know there is interest in hotel owners adopting real renewable projects to reduce their costs and to twin green resort experiences at their properties."