The Minister of Tourism and Transport is calling on hoteliers to re-examine reasons behind the drop in hotel occupancy rates in 2005.

The Minister was responding to an article in yesterday?s newspaper in which the Bermuda Hotel Association president Michael Winfield said the average hotel occupancy rate had fallen to 55.2 percent for the year compared to 62.4 percent in 2004.

Dr. Ewart Brown yesterday said he too was concerned after comparing air arrivals for 2004 with 2005 and found that hotel occupancy rates for that period showed a distinct difference.

This, he said, was a possible indication that the length of stay by visitors had decreased.

Querying whether or not hoteliers have looked into this possibility, he said if this was the case, it was cause for concern.

?If so, what is it that could be contributing to a shorten length of stay? Is it because of price, or the quality of hotel product, or is it some other reason? I think the hoteliers should examine this before we see the dramatic increase in visitor arrivals we expect next year,? Dr. Brown said.

Dr. Brown said with the likelihood of Bermuda having the services of three low cost high quality airlines in 2006, air arrivals should increase.

?I would hate to see our hotel occupancy rates not rise with the air arrivals and therefore I?m calling on hoteliers to re-examine the reason behind the drop in occupancy.?

Dr. Brown said the Ministry was enjoying a productive relationship with hoteliers and would do everything they could to make sure that 2006 was the ?best year we?ve seen in decades?.