Recently released tourism statistics reveal that if international businesses left Bermuda the tourism industry would be severely impacted, according to the Opposition spokesman for tourism.

"If international business left Bermuda it could be catastrophic to tourism because there is that much reliance on business visitors," David Dodwell said.

"Business visitors, by any definition, are not tourists. Their activities and spending patterns are different from those of tourists, and their arrival has nothing to do with Bermuda Tourism's marketing or promotional efforts.

"Yes, these visitors stay in hotels, go to restaurants, use taxis and play golf, but that is not the reason they are coming — they are here for business.

"The real question is are we getting value for money, for the 36 million tourism budget that we spend to attract probably 100,000 first time air arrival leisure visitors?"

Yesterday The Royal Gazette published statistics never before released by the Department of Tourism, despite previous requests for a breakdown in arrival figures. They were provided after The Royal Gazette requested overall arrivals figures to clarify statistics mentioned in a press release sent by the Department about "a blockbuster August for the hotel industry".

The detailed statistics revealed the number of visitors flying to the Island solely for vacation — not on business or to visit a family or friend — has dropped over the last five months when compared to the 2006 air arrival figures.

The number of these air arrival leisure visitors fell by 13. 3 percent in April, 6.6 percent in May, 14.1 percent in June, 9.6 percent in July and 3.1 percent in August.

Meanwhile the number of people flying into the country for business has dramatically risen compared to 2006 air arrivals figures.

The figure was up 52.1 percent in April, 46.7 percent in May, 50.4 percent in June, 26.1 percent in July and 23.9 percent in August.

Mr. Dodwell said: "There is no question that the latest tourism figures distinguishing between regular and business arrivals are shocking. The fact that leisure tourist arrival figures are as much as 15% down from last year contradicts flat out the drumbeat of upbeat news that has been pushed forward by the Tourism Minister for too long.

"Since last year, the Bermuda public has been fed a steady diet of good news from the Tourism Minister. We have heard about growth at a "stellar pace", growth at "record pace," a "blockbuster" 2006, the 25% jump in arrivals over the first quarter of 2006 and the "outpacing" of Caribbean rivals.

"The reality behind these claims is that Tourism, under Dr. Brown's leadership, has used the growth in business arrivals to reflect an increase in leisure tourism arrivals, which is misleading."

Mr. Dodwell said his party had been calling for a distinction to be made between leisure and business arrivals for months, because he felt it would provide people with a better understanding about how the tourism industry is doing.

"If you count business visitors as tourists, you distort the true tourist arrivals picture, you distort the value of tourist activity in Bermuda to the business community, and you distort the value of your efforts to improve tourist arrivals. Business visitors require no particular promotional effort from Tourism.

"They cannot be used as evidence of the success or failure of any particular Tourism campaign. Indeed, they can be seriously misleading in that kind of context."

He added that he hoped that these statistics would be revealed in the future.

A breakdown of what type of visitor comes to the Island, such as the one The Royal Gazette received, has not been released in the last few years. The pages of statistics contain detailed numbers specifying the number of people visiting from California every month to the number of men aged 30-39 who visit the Island, and so forth.

Premier Ewart Brown, who is also Minister of Tourism, said he embraced the statistics and added: "Some media have put a new-found emphasis on separating certain kinds of visitors, which is perfectly fine.

"However we want the public to know the Bermuda Department of Tourism caters to all kinds of visitors because we don't mind who comes to our shores, as long as they are filling our hotels and restaurants and taxis.

"All the evidence that I've seen proves to me that the 2007 summer season was a blockbuster for hoteliers, restaurateurs and taxi drivers — just about every sector of the tourism industry performed well."

Dr. Brown added that air arrival visitors spent $30 million more on Bermuda's shores during the second quarter, April-June, than they did in 2006.

And the Premier said he believed visitor numbers would have been stronger if the former Wyndham property and Harmony Club were able to accept guests this year.