Premier and Minister of Tourism Ewart Brown has detailed plans to help the tourism industry weather the economic woes predicted for 2009/10.

Summarising the department's $32.4 million budget for the year in the House of Assembly, Dr. Brown acknowledged global tourism figures are likely to stagnate or decline according to the World Tourism Authority.

He reflected on local figures showing air arrivals down 4.62 percent last year compared to 2007 and US visitors down 9.5 percent although visitors from other markets were up.

Aims for the next year, according to Dr. Brown, include maintaining the Island's share of business at 2008 visitor levels, increasing the number of hotel beds, maintaining air visitor spending levels and increasing cruise ship visitor spending levels.

Government hopes to achieve this through continuing sales efforts in the north eastern United States, continuing trade partnerships in Europe, placing a fresh emphasis on "digital marketing' globally, launching a newly-renovated golf course at Port Royal and offering tax concessions to attract cruise ships back to Hamilton and St. George.

In addition, Dr. Brown outlined promotions in the pipeline such as a 400 plane tickets for £400 offer in the UK to celebrate the Island's 400th birthday, which will be launched next month. Among the local plans are weekly family sandcastle-building competitions and a relaunch of the movies on the beach event at Horseshoe Bay.

Dr. Brown defended staff cuts resulting from restructuring the New York tourism office which saw a decrease in employees from 43 to 17 and sparked a union outcry. He emphasised that all but two of the remaining staff are Bermudian, later saying that there are five Bermudians working with Sales Focus, and said more efficient management will result in greater benefits.

Responding to a question from the United Bermuda Party, the Premier said the Tourism Department made savings of $2.7 million as a result of the staff changes in New York.

In his reply to the presentation, Opposition Leader and Shadow Minister of Tourism Kim Swan congratulated Government for significantly reducing the budget shaving nine percent off the previous year but questioned whether it was getting value for money.

Mr. Swan said if budget figures for previous years were divided by the number of tourism employees in those years, it demonstrated that $47,626 was spent per employee in 2003/04 but $69,634 a 40 percent increase five years on.

His calculations attracted heckles of "you can't do that" from the Government benches, with a retort from Mr. Swan that "I can, I'm doing a subjective analysis."

This prompted Dr. Brown to rise on a "point of order" and accuse Mr. Swan of misleading the House, saying the figures made no sense since they did not take into account the varying number of employees on different pay scales in each of the budget years.

Mr. Swan then complained that he had to make such an analysis because the Opposition only gets "limited information" on what jobs exist and what individual staff are paid. He went on to praise the 400 plane tickets for £400 offer planned for the UK, commenting: "That's catchy, I agree. That's fishing where the fish are."

However, he urged for more "fishing" to be done in gateway markets to attract visitors from places such as Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

"Certainly beds are available for them if we can get them here," he noted.

Former Education Minister Randolph Horton spoke of the importance of giving tourists a memorable time in Bermuda, urging taxi drivers to tell them wonderful things about the Island instead of complaining about GPS.

Mr. Horton, who works at Fairmont Hamilton, suggested a golf school with a top professional to attract visitors.

Junior Labour Minister Walter Roban took to his feet to pat the Premier on the back, saying: "I'm certain that the Minister's team are making the right decisions. I congratulate again the Tourism Minister for the stewardship of this Ministry over the year."

Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons said even in 2007, a good year for air arrivals, the figures were still lower than ten years ago.

He said Bermuda's slump in 2008 contrasted with rising fortunes in the Caribbean — although Dr. Brown countered that was because other islands had struggled in 2007.

Dr. Gibbons calculated taxpayers had splashed out $2,000 for each of the 1,500 people who visited the Music Festival.

"You could have given them two or three free air tickets to come back and forth for that $2,000," said the former Opposition Leader.