and stay programme was revealed to be failing.

Three of the Island's regular callers were supposed to have a designated number of berths set aside for cruise and stay passengers -- but industry sources have admitted the public was not interested in combined hotel and cruise holidays.

Mr. Allen stated last April that the extra 251 berths added to the existing 1,500 on the Norwegian Majesty through a refit would have to be used for cruise and stay passengers only.

Passenger lists supplied by cruise agents show the Norwegian Majesty came with 1,760, 1,709, 1,561 and 1,760 people during its June visits this year -- a total of 790 above the stated limit.

The weekend vessel Crown Dynasty has 100 of its 800 berths for cruise and stay passengers, but the cruise line admitted it had only sold a total of 151 holidays since its launch in May.

It has had numbers of 750, 629, 501, 691 and 834 in June.

The Nordic Empress had approximately 200 extra berths when it replaced the Song of America , with the Minister saying last year that "if they put a larger ship on, those extra berths have to be for hotel stays''.

That took its capacity from 1,400 to 1,727.

However, neither the company nor the ship's agent knew anything about the cruise and stay scheme.

In June, the Nordic Empress showed passenger counts of 1,644, 1,673, 1,688 and 1,763 -- over a thousand passengers above the previous capacity for the month.

Mr. Allen said last night, in response to faxed questions, that he would not be able to access the necessary information until today at least.

He added: "However I will point out to you that the Nordic Empress is not part of the fly, cruise and stay programme.'' Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell said he predicted the scheme would be a flop, and said that had now come true.

He said people who wanted to stay in a resort hotel and those who enjoyed cruising were completely different.