crisis is costing Government hundreds of thousands of dollars.

He "emphatically denied'' claims that the private sector had failed to come up with $500,000 for phase three of the tourism review conducted by Boston consultants the Monitor Group.

And Mr. Dodwell promised the $1 million Government had committed to phase three would produce a series of new workshops aimed at boosting tourism.

He spoke to The Royal Gazette last night after reports earlier in the day claimed Government had to find the extra cash because private enterprise had snubbed the Monitor Group's ongoing review.

Mr. Dodwell said: "The million dollars is coming from the Government and that has always been the case. It's written into the Budget Statement.

"I would deny emphatically that there is a funding crisis. In fact, it is totally the opposite and the process is more than adequately funded.

"This Government would not invest in something that it didn't have confidence in and that was underfunded.

"The Government has actually decided to put more money in because it believes in the process of this review and the importance of a partnership between the public sector and the private sector.'' He said CAG Ltd., the company formed to manage Monitor's consultancy work in Bermuda, was still working to secure funding for phase three from the private sector.

And Mr. Dodwell said new workshops would be organised in a bid to produce a better service for visitors and encourage tourism employees to "make the most of their talents''.

"One of the objects of this next phase of the review is to recognise the importance of developing human capital -- in other words our people -- and using them as a resource,'' said the Minister.

"The workshops will focus around this and around service provision. We are trying to get the industry's major players to make the most out of their staff and build a better product for our visitors.

"During the Budget debate on Wednesday, I will talk about how our visitors want a `total island experience'.

"There are 12 workshops going on right now and these new initiatives will be a continuation of that process.

"We're encouraging people who have not sat down together in the past to work hand-in-hand to hammer out the things that are necessary to improve tourism for this Country.'' Govt. increases Monitor funds Mr. Dodwell said more than $1 million had been provided for phases one and two of the Monitor Group review, designed to arrest the decline in tourism.

Latest figures showed a two percent drop in tourism arrivals to 548,278 in 1997.

The decline followed bigger drops in visitor numbers in 1996 and 1995.

Mr. Dodwell said phase one of the Monitor study was paid for by $500,000 from Government, with the rest donated by private enterprise.

The cash was diverted to a range of research-based projects, including collecting information on what was causing the drop in visitors to the Island.

Workshops were started during phase two, paid for with an additional $350,000 from Government and spare phase one funds.