For the last 15 years, tourism's problems have come down to three things: The quality of the Island's “plant”, from hotel buildings to services and attractions; price, both for getting here and while on the Island; and service.

Over the last few years, some of these problems have been tackled.

Existing hotels have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on improvements and at last, there are signs that hotels that had previously closed will re-open: this year, the Daniel's Head eco-resort will re-open as 9 Beaches and Lantana will open its first rooms in its reincarnation as a spa resort.

Due to Tourism and Transport Minister Ewart Brown's success in attracting new flights to the Island, airfares have begun to drop. Hotel rates are still high in comparison to other destinations, in part because of the high fixed costs of operating in Bermuda.

Service remains a problem, in part because of Bermuda's high prices. While it's true that Bermuda is not alone in getting complaints about service, the value visitors expect for the price they pay for a Bermuda vacation means Bermuda must deliver excellent service.

However, based on anecdotal evidence alone, complaints seem to have declined, although Tourism's own visitor satisfaction surveys show some areas of weakness too.

So some progress is being made. Dr. Brown released the tourism figures for 2004 yesterday and also announced his Ministry's plans for the coming few years.

The Ministry thinks it has “stopped the rot” in tourism, with air arrivals showing an improvement over 2003 when Fabian effectively killed the last four months of the year and also caused some properties to remain closed in early 2004.

However, overall visitor arrivals were down because the Carnival mega-ships that were so successful in 2003 did not return.

Still, the good news is that visitor spending figures - the most important number - were up on 2003.

So the good news is that after Fabian, arrival figures did not fall further. Nonetheless, the industry still lagged behind its performance prior to 2003 which means that if the industry is recovering, it is likely to be a long and slow process.

But that does not mean it can't be done. And no one can deny that Dr. Brown is an energetic and charismatic figure who brings enthusiasm and effectiveness to his job.

Much of what he announced yesterday makes sense. More flights, working with hotel developers to add rooms, promoting the island in the winter months for “golf and spa” vacations and looking at events that would bring more visitors to the Island are all welcome, as is the plan for a convention centre.

This newspaper remains concerned that the Ministry of Tourism risks losing its focus by widening its marketing efforts, especially when Dr. Brown does not anticipate that the Ministry's budget will be increased next year.

He promised yesterday that the ministry would not be “scattershot” in its marketing, but cost cutting can only go so far and real money is needed to buy air time, advertising space and so forth.

If Government and Bermuda really want tourism to recover, then the Ministry's budget, which has only increased marginally since 1999, should receive a significant boost, which can be used to promote the Island and to bring about improvements in service and quality.

That will give Dr. Brown's ambitious plans a chance to succeed, will attract more visitors to the Island and will encourage more Bermudians to enter an industry that they perceive as a success.