At least one South Shore hotel has had to lay off staff in an effort to reduce overheads following what the Shadow Minister of Tourism calls an "exceedingly poor year" in tourism.

United Bermuda Party Senator Kim Swan last night said hotels had no choice but to lay off staff when the hotel occupancy rate dropped below 70 percent.

While the hotel occupancy rate for July was 77.6 percent, compared to 82 percent last year, the projection for August was only 54.4 percent ? the actual figure for August has not yet been released.

Sen. Swan said that in spite of the continuing campaign of "hype and deception" from the Tourism Minister, Dr. Ewart Brown, it was clear that the third quarter bookings and fourth quarter projections were poor.

As a consequence, hotel workers were now facing layoffs during what had always been considered the peak season, as hotels moved to reduce overheads.

He said there was no excuse for the poor performance of tourism and a weak US dollar should make Bermuda more attractive to American, European and Canadian visitors. But this was not the case.

"The seriousness of this dismal picture is that many of our competitor jurisdictions are enjoying success from the fruits of their marketing efforts, whilst our tourism budget outspends them at astronomical proportions," he said.

He added that the Ettenberg Report noted that "Bermuda spends three times the cost per room in marketing than our major Caribbean counterparts".

Sen. Swan said while some businesses are forced to address cost effectiveness in a real way, the Bermuda Department of Tourism has known for quite some time that it is the least cost effective.

Quoting the Ettenberg Report, he said: "Bermuda is by far the least effective in the use of marketing dollars to effect conversions. It cost us $73.30 per visitor versus other destinations in the teens. We need a more effective spending strategy."

He added: "Bermuda's failure has been cleverly masked in a political public relations charade since 1998, which has seen seven heads of departments ? three Ministers and four directors in less than seven years of the PLP Governments tenure.

"While Ministers continue to dictate policy and control tourism's $35 million budget, we can expect little real change in the way we do business or in the pathetic results," he said.

Since 1998, the hospitality industry has lost more than $500 million dollars in visitor expenditure as a consequence of the "PLP tourism management", he charged.

Sen. Swan said with the tourism industry "firmly entrenched in the political realm", it seemed the fear of getting on the wrong side of a "vengeful PLP" was enough to encourage business representatives to be less than candid with the seven year "merry-go-round of policy changes" and the "incoherent management of an ailing industry".

"Ironically, the fortitude needed for business to survive in the real world is far less about diplomacy and more about doing what is best for the profitability of the business and the good health of the industry," he said.

Sen. Swan called on industry leaders to "address the failings of the Tourism Department" and said the time had come for an apolitical Tourism Authority to be created.

Attempts to get comments and the most recent hotel occupancy figures from the Bermuda Hotel Association were unsuccessful.