Faith Based Tourism boss Andre Curtis and the Department of Tourism have shunned media questions over growing confusion about how many visitors his initiative has brought to Bermuda.

Mr. Curtis has consistently refused to back up his claim that he has lured roughly 1,500 visitors this financial year — with Opposition MP Wayne Furbert, a well-known member of the church community, arguing the number is probably no more than 100.

Asked for an accurate statistic on visitors so far, Mr. Curtis directed The Royal Gazette to the Department of Tourism — from whom he is contracted to receive $400,000 to run the scheme in 2007-08.

But despite numerous requests yesterday, Monday and late last week, no response came from the Department of Tourism, or Premier and Tourism Minister Ewart Brown. Mr. Curtis also failed to respond to phone or e-mail messages yesterday or Monday.

One fund-raising group did speak out to distance itself from Mr. Curtis after his vague claim last week that he organised an event called "Weekend Fit For A King" in September. Mr. Curtis has refused to provide any further details about when or where that took place, and the only public record is for something of that name at Grotto Bay hotel in 2006.

The Phenomenal Women's Association has recently organised two similarly-named events, "Lunch Fit For A Prince" in October, and "Tea Party Fit For A Princess" in August.

Asked if she knew anything about "Weekend Fit For A King", group spokeswoman Penny Ingram replied: "Are you kidding me? Andre Curtis has absolutely nothing to do with my group. Faith Based Tourism and politics is something we do not delve in."

In an e-mail, she later added: "I can confirm that Mr. Curtis has absolutely NO affiliation with our organisation. In fact, our organisation consists of 11 professional women. There are no men involved at all. Further, we have absolutely no political involvement/affiliation with either party."

Under the terms of his contract, Mr. Curtis is required to organise ten events in 2007-08, bringing a total 2,200 tourists to Bermuda.

This summer, he responded to critics of his handling of faith-based tourism by advertising in The Royal Gazette a list of ten events he claimed to have organised. There was no mention of "Weekend Fit For A King" in that list.

The list showed November's CeCe Winans concert as event number four.

However, two weeks ago, Mr. Curtis claimed CeCe Winans was in fact event number six. Last week he said CeCe Winans was event number five.

Requests for a definitive list from Mr. Curtis or the Department of Tourism have gone unanswered.

The latest event was a two-night performance from Jamal Bryant at St. Paul AME Church last week. When The Royal Gazette arrived 15 minutes after the first night was scheduled to start, door staff said it was likely to be cancelled due to the poor turnout.

Dr. Brown has repeatedly stated he will answer questions through the Parliamentary process — not over the summer or after Parliament was dissolved ahead of December 18's General Election.

The Royal Gazette asked his Press Secretary Glenn Jones whether the Premier would respond to Opposition Leader Michael Dunkley's latest call for answers, but received no response.

Last month, Mr. Curtis said he was not hurt by the barrage of criticism he has faced — saying that God is directing him and he had recently been moved to tears by the fact He has chosen him.

Do you know anything about "Weekend Fit For A King"? E-mail Tim Smith at tsmith[AT]royalgazette.bm