Visitor numbers from Canada have dropped around four percent this year, according to Tourism Director Gary Phillips.

But -- according to travel agents in Canada -- the fall is more to do with the weak Canadian dollar than calls for a boycott of the Island in the wake of the Rebecca Middleton murder probe mess-up.

And Mr. Phillips said any effect from the boycott campaign would not be seen for some time.

Bermuda is traditionally a more popular destination for Canadians in the winter season than the summer season -- so the effect of boycott calls, if any, would be unlikely to become obvious until this month.

Mr. Phillips added: "There is no statistical evidence, and certainly no evidence from any other means, which would suggest to us that the drop-off in percentage terms from Canada has anything to do with anything other than that which our travel trade partners have said.'' He said: "We wouldn't know at this particular stage about the effect of any boycott and we would hope that would not be the case.'' He added other reasons cited by Canadian travel agents for the drop in Canadian tourists was a poor-performing Stock Exchange and a holiday-in-Canada promotion drive by several provinces.

Mr. Phillips said: "I accept that one murder, whether it be a Bermudian or a visitor, is one too many, and it does affect the comfort level of visitors.

"But the vast majority of people who come to Bermuda recognise it's one of the safer places to visit as a destination.'' Mr. Phillips added that Ms Middleton's father David had not backed a boycott.

He said: "He is as close as one can possibly be to this tragic affair and if he, in his grief, is able to make a bold statement that people of Bermuda do not deserve this type of boycott, he needs to be listened to.'' And Mr. Phillips said his department had nothing to do with the puff piece on Bermuda tourism which ran in the Toronto Globe and Mail just before Christmas, written by Sherry Spitsnaugle, of Denver, Colorado.

The article was slammed on a website devoted to the Middleton murder case as "tactless''.

Mr. Phillips said: "The Department of Tourism is not so insensitive as to deliberately pay for an advertisement such as that.

"We did not orchestrate that story at all. It would be a slap in the face to the integrity of the Globe and Mail to be in partnership with something like that.'' Mr. Phillips said: "We are contacted, like all other destinations, by journalists from around the world, particularly freelance journalists, who are looking to syndicate their work across the United States and Canada.'' But he said the Department had no record of any contact with Ms Spitsnaugle.

Mr. Phillips added: "We don't have that name -- it could very well be a pseudonym.'' Gary Phillips