Bermuda's visitor arrival recovery, the president and chief executive officer of the Bank of Bermuda said yesterday.

And Shadow Tourism Minister Mr. David Allen charged that Bermuda needs a new Tourism Minister, but the Premier does not have the political firepower to dump the Hon. C.V. (Jim) Woolridge.

"After an encouraging start in the early months of the year, air arrivals have been disappointing, with little response to the economic recovery in the United States,'' Mr. Charles Vaughan-Johnson said in a letter to shareholders.

"Indeed, recent weeks have shown a disturbing downward trend.'' Mr. Vaughan-Johnson said it was becoming "increasingly clear'' that Bermuda faced strong competition from other destinations that was likely to continue.

"This underlines the need to develop further actions plans urgently, in keeping with the study made earlier this year on Bermuda's competitiveness.'' The bank president noted that while cruise ship arrivals were up 11.5 percent, air arrivals had improved by only 3.1 percent for the period from January 1 to September 11.

Mr. Woolridge told The Royal Gazette that Mr. Vaughan-Johnson was "perfectly right''. However, "it would be unwise for me to tell you that I have an urgent plan to put in place right away,'' he said.

"You just can't go out and have an urgent plan implemented,'' Mr. Woolridge said. "You have to have a basic study first to find out the real source of it.'' The Tourism Department was studying the situation, he said. One finding was that arrivals from Boston had dropped by 13.4 percent.

While he expected improvement over the next three months, Mr. Woolridge felt Bermuda in the short term had to rely on programmes in place "unless we get a massive supplement to push money in there.'' And it was the wrong time of year to promote the Island's beaches, he said.

Planned rugby and golf promotions should help.

Mr. Allen said Mr. Vaughan-Johnson was saying what the Progressive Labour Party had been saying for years. Air arrivals were still 15 percent below what they were in 1980, and Mr. Woolridge was being "complacent'' when he cited improvements over last year.

Bermuda needed "new strategies'', but Mr. Woolridge was stuck "in the time frame of 20 years ago'', Mr. Allen said.

"Obviously the UBP (United Bermuda Party) can't replace him, because of the situation within that party,'' he said. "Mr. Woolridge has made it very clear he would declare civil war if he was (replaced). That happened the last time.'' With a slim majority in the House of Assembly and sporadic rebellions in the back bench, Government in the last session was unable to pass its Independence referendum legislation. Mr. Allen said the Tourism Minister "has the Premier over a barrel'', and "he just has to put up with Mr. Woolridge''.

Mr. Woolridge said Mr. Allen's comments were "political rhetoric -- which you would expect coming from an imbecile.

"When we were doing well, he was very silent,'' Mr. Woolridge said. "Now, all of a sudden, he comes out of the woodwork.

"He doesn't have a clue. He doesn't know what he's talking about. I expect him to say those things.'' Meanwhile, the Bermuda Hotel Association said yesterday that its 22 reporting properties reported 71.6 percent occupancy in September, compared to 73.6 percent in the same month last year and 66.7 percent in September of 1992.

Projections for the next quarter were behind the 1993 pace but were expected to pick up due to the late booking trend, the BHA said.