An increase in people flying to Bermuda on business or to visit family and friends had little to do the Department of Tourism's $36 million budget, according to the Opposition spokesman for tourism.

And David Dodwell added that new hotels would not change the trend.

Recently the Department released in-depth statistics for the arrivals period of April-August. They revealed that the number of tourists flying into Bermuda to visit family and friends was up 37 percent this summer.

And the percentage of people visiting the Island on business jumped by double digits every month when compared to 2006 figures.

Meanwhile the number of visitors arriving by air solely for a vacation dropped over the last five months, sometimes by as much as 15 percent.

Premier Ewart Brown, who is also Minister of Tourism, attributed the surge in people coming to visit friends and family to a combination of the Department of Tourism's marketing strategy and the lure of loved ones who live here.

He said: "Through strategic marketing it's our job to create a buzz about Bermuda — get Bermuda on the minds of as many people as possible. When those people are making decisions on where to travel, whether to visit friends or for business or for pleasure, we hope they'll choose Bermuda based on the fact that our marketing strategy has convinced them this is the place to be."

But Mr. Dodwell, who is the Shadow Minister of Tourism, said Dr. Brown's statement was "absolute nonsense".

"His statement looks like a lot of spin. It is clear it is been written by someone who wants to defend these numbers," he said.

"The Premier is trying to get credit for friends because he wants to turn the spotlight off the drop in leisure visitors after all the hype this summer.

"I cannot believe that the number of people visiting to see friends and family went up because of the tourism marketing strategy. Yes, they see the ads but they are here to visit friends and family anyway.

"Most of these people do not stay in hotels and I cannot believe they eat every meal in a hotel or restaurant as other visitors do. These people are our aunts, uncles, parents who come to see and stay with us, so I don't believe it was a blockbluster year for hotels because of family and friends. It is pure nonsense.

"Sadly the biggest news is that we have spent $36 million to market to first-time leisure visitors, who are the real people we are trying to attract, but the number of leisure visitors is still dropping.

"If we could ever know what that real number is of first-time leisure visitors we would probably have the most expensive marketing strategy in the world."

And Mr. Dodwell said creating new hotels would not change the statistics. "The fact is that business visitors are up, that has nothing to do with the tourism strategy. The number of visitors coming to see family and friends is up, which has nothing to do with the tourism strategy. But leisure visitors are down. Something is wrong here.

"The answer is not more hotels. Am I against more hotels absolutely not, but that is not the problem.

"We are not turning the visitors away every weekend, some weekends are full, but most are not.

"More hotels will not bring more leisure visitors."