strategy for being ineffective.

And he is accusing Government of being responsible for allowing morale within the industry to plummet.

Mr. Allen made his remarks following the release of April's visitor arrival statistics. The figures show that, while air arrivals were up on the same figure last year, cruise ship arrivals fell.

And visitor surveys also showed a dip in the number of guests who felt the Island was one of the best possible places to take a holiday.

Last night Mr. Allen said the Ministry of Tourism's marketing budget "was not being spent in the most effective way''.

And he blasted the Government for failing to make Bermudians feel they have a stake in the industry.

"Something like $30 million dollars has been spent on marketing in the last two years,'' he said. "But we are still very flat which shows that the marketing strategy still has a long way to go and is not properly effective.

"It's a far from satisfactory situation and you have to ask yourself if the marketing dollar is being spent in the most effective way -- one has to say that it is not.

"Occupancy levels may be up but you have to remember that we have lost an awful lot of beds so that's not surprising.

"But what is very disturbing is that visitor satisfaction is down -- that's extremely significant. When you talk about visitor satisfaction one is talking about price and value for money.

"Another reason why (it) is down has to do with the morale of the people in the industry.

"A lot of the people working in tourism are not performing at the optimum level because they feel that they don't have a stake in it. We have a very good product but we don't have everyone feeling they're a vital part of it.''