Bermuda's tourism numbers could plummet even further below last year's disappointing results, it has been claimed.

And Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell says the current Government have overseen a decline in certain categories of visitor statistics -- reversing an upward flow before November 1998.

"I think the numbers are going to get worse,'' he said. "It is against the trend when we left.

"Bednights, hotel occupancy and average length of stay were all up for 1997 over 1996 and for 1998 over 1997.

"Now, air arrivals are down and other factors are down.'' Mr. Dodwell said the 1999 final figures, which showed falls in air arrivals from the US, Canada and UK, but increases in cruise ship visitors, showed a failure of Government's post-election pledge to start the recovery -- and an absence of a blueprint for tourism.

"I think what this points to is the 100-day rescue mission did not cut it.

Where is the plan? It is no good having a year and a quarter of a failed marketing campaign with no provable results and no plan on the table.

"He needs to show the country the plan.'' The Southampton West MP said David Allen's trumpeting of 1999 as a record year for cruise ship arrivals showed how negative the statistics were.

"It is not good to praise cruise arrivals as positive, I don't see those as positive. A record cruise season is not a good sign because they are at the expense of air arrivals and room nights.'' And he added that the Minister's announcement, following an error in the Royal Gazette that the monthly tourism statistics, Bermuda in Perspective, would now be published in the Official Gazette in the Bermuda Sun first was "complete overkill''.

"Me thinks he doth protest too much, was there pressure from the top?'' he asked.

"Those numbers should be given to the public, why just publish them in the Official Gazette.

"This is not going to build morale, you are really punishing people by not giving the numbers, it doesn't make sense.''