Faith-based tourism boss Andre Curtis yesterday refused to back up his claim that he has lured 1,500 tourists to Bermuda this financial year — despite critics insisting his figure is wildly inaccurate.

Mr. Curtis gave the estimated statistic in an interview with The Royal Gazette last week — but the United Bermuda Party's Wayne Furbert, a well-known member of the church community, said he believes the true number is probably no more than 100.

Last week, Mr. Curtis — who has repeatedly been accused of failing to attract enough tourists despite receiving $400,000 taxpayers' money to run the initiative in 2007-08 — told this newspaper he would provide an accurate statistic this week.

However, when contacted on Wednesday he claimed he had never made such a pledge.

When contacted again yesterday and told that people were accusing him of misleading the public, he still failed to provide the actual figure.

Further confusion surrounds the number of events Mr. Curtis has organised this financial year.

Last week, he said the weekend's CeCe Winans concert was event number six, although we pointed out it was only number four on the list he advertised in this newspaper in the summer.

Yesterday, he claimed CeCe Winans was in fact event number five. He said an extra event called "Weekend Fit For A King" had taken place in September but refused to provide more details.

The only record we could find of "Weekend Fit For A King" is a reference on the Department of Tourism's website to an event of that name. That took place on September 30 and October 1, 2006.

Mr. Curtis runs Premier Ewart Brown's constituency in Warwick South Central.

Both deny faith-based tourism is being used as a method for Dr. Brown to get cash to Mr. Curtis as a thank you gesture.

Former Opposition Leader Mr. Furbert said yesterday: "Curtis is misleading the people. There's no indication that anything other than a small number of tourists came for any of these events.

"For the biggest event at the National Stadium, from the members I spoke to who attended, there was no tourists there. Maybe he was including the ten or 20 of them who were participating.

"From every event, if there were 100 then that's about it. He needs to tell the truth. He's got to stop using God's people for his own gain.

"We (the UBP) support faith-based initiatives, but we don't support the idea of giving $400,000 to Curtis just for his own benefit to get a pay cheque.

"If we were to run it, it would be run by the Ministry itself, not by Curtis. It would include helping people with programmes they run in churches, helping the needy.

"We are wasting taxpayers' money to give it to Curtis just because he's Ewart Brown's chairman. I challenge him to prove that he's had 500 tourists. I'm confident he didn't get 300."

Under the terms of the contract, Mr. Curtis is required to organise ten events in 2007-08, luring a total 2,200 tourists to Bermuda.

This week, we received phone calls from church-goers who said they found it impossible to believe Mr. Curtis' figure of 1,500 tourists so far.

When we rang Mr. Curtis on Wednesday to find out the exact figure, he claimed he had been misquoted and had not in fact pledged to reveal the figure.

When we argued he had not been misquoted, he said there were other people in the room with him and asked us to call back the next day.

Yesterday morning, his cell phone was off, but he did send us an e-mail revealing the attendance at the weekend's CeCe Winans concert was less than he originally claimed.

He had previously told us 600 turned out on Saturday, and a further 900 on Sunday — totals disputed by people who were there.

Yesterday, Mr. Curtis said the combined attendance for both nights was 1,160 — though he did not say how many were tourists.

His e-mail included a list of events he said he had set up, including "Weekend Fit For A King", and said for more information we should approach the Department of Tourism.

Despite requests for more information, we received no further response from Mr. Curtis or the Department of Tourism.

Last night, the fifth (or sixth) faith-based tourism event of 2007-08, "Taking It To The Next Level", with Jamal Bryant, was scheduled to begin at 7.30 p.m. at St. Paul AME Church, Hamilton.

The Royal Gazette arrived at 7.45 p.m. to find rows of empty seats, with door staff saying it was likely to be cancelled due to the poor turnout.

It is scheduled for the same venue at the same time tonight.

This summer, Mr. Curtis attempted to silence his critics by calling a press conference at which he produced a list of ten events he claimed he was organising.

However, he was criticised for refusing to entertain questions at the press conference, while the credibility of his list and other documents he put forward were attacked by the Opposition.

Dr. Brown has repeatedly stated he will answer questions through the Parliamentary process — not over the summer or after Parliament was dissolved ahead of December 18's General Election.

He maintained that stance when questioned by this newspaper earlier this month, though he pointed out Mr. Curtis had to meet certain numbers by the terms of his contract.

Asked about the current situation yesterday, Opposition Leader Michael Dunkley said: "The Premier allocated an enormous amount of money to faith-based tourism, but when the rubber meets the road, there's nothing come out of it.

"We had the fiasco where Mr. Curtis held a press conference which opened up more questions than provided answers. We were told we would get answers in the House of Assembly but as we all know Parliament was then dissolved.

"The Premier needs to step in and say what's taken place. It's an embarrassment to Bermuda and an embarrassment to anybody who has faith."

Earlier this month, Mr. Curtis said the criticism did not hurt him and that God is directing him — saying he had recently been moved to tears by the fact He has chosen him.