Tourism Minister Renee Webb has finally admitted her predecessor David Allen's marketing strategy was "a disaster", the United Bermuda Party (UBP) said yesterday.

Ms Webb said in Tuesday's Royal Gazette "our marketing dollars were expended all over the place and in some cases they were not justified compared to the numbers coming out of there. We are (now) spending our marketing dollars more wisely".

Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell said last night: "We've finally had the admission from the Minister that Tourism under David Allen's strategy, from a marketing standpoint, was the disaster we have called it over the last three or four years.

"The Minister has admitted it and I applaud her for saying it was poorly done over the past three to four years."

Mr. Dodwell said last year's 6.4 percent increase in tourist numbers - taking air and cruise arrivals to 483,622 - masked five years of decline under the Progressive Labour Party.

He claimed it was unfair of Ms Webb to compare the figures with 2001 - when there was a dramatic drop in numbers after September 11.

The Minister said she found the figures "encouraging" because Bermuda, unlike some other countries, had bounced back and seen an increase in arrivals last year.

Mr. Dodwell said last year's numbers were still well down on 2000, when the Island had 538,069 air and cruise arrivals.

"I understand and appreciate the Minister's need to be positive, but it is not appropriate to compare it to 2001which was the worst year in almost 30 years, and it does not tell the true story," he said.

"We're still way behind in just about every number compared to 2000 and we have seen five consecutive years of decline.

"What I don't see is a message that this government is going to turn around tourism. It's not happened in four and half years and the community should be concerned that despite all the promises from the PLP, we haven't seen it."

Air arrivals last year were 283,557 compared to 275,009 in 2001 and 328,332 in 2000. Cruise visitors were 200,065 last year, 179,435 in 2001 and 209,727 in 2000.

Mr. Dodwell said he was concerned cruise ship passengers - who spend far less that air visitors - accounted for a large percentage of the increase last year.

And he believes the number of cruise passengers will hit an all-time high of 225,000 this year, knocking the cruise-air equation badly out of balance.

"I am not against having cruise passengers, but it worries me that we haven't got the balance right and this will be incredibly skewed," he said.

Spending per person, according to Mr. Dodwell's calculations, have risen from $1,149 in 2000 to $1,127 in 2001, and $1,176 in 2002.

"That's a two percent rise since 2000 and that has not even kept pace with inflation." The shadow Minister said he was disturbed that the results of the exit survey for tourists about whether they were getting value for money had not been published since 2000, when 52 percent said they thought the Island was good value.

"We haven't seen the results since 2000, so maybe they are still asking the question and the results have been getting worse," said Mr. Dodwell.

"It is my understanding they are still asking the question on value for money. If they are not, they should be because it is the most meaningful test we have."