Premier Ewart Brown yesterday said his confidence in advertising agency GlobalHue was mainly based on the "tremendous impact" of an advertising campaign three years ago.

GlobalHue — reportedly run by Dr. Brown's longtime friend Don Coleman — faced no competition for the $28 million renewal of its two-year contract with Tourism because Cabinet decided not to put the bid out to tender.

The move, announced in the Official Gazette on May 1, came despite falling visitors numbers and disparagement of GlobalHue's dealings.

Yesterday, the Premier and Tourism Minister answered this newspaper's request from ten days ago for a statement explaining the rationale behind the reappointment of GlobalHue.

The statement revealed GlobalHue will be paid $1.6 million per year to promote Bermuda as a visitor destination, and is contracted to spend about $14 million in each of the next two years on advertising and marketing.

Dr. Brown stated: "The Bermuda Department of Tourism has confidence in GlobalHue based mainly on the tremendous impact of the 2006 advertising campaign that gave us the best year (2007) for visitor arrivals in 20 years.

"We expect to see the launch of the 2009 advertising campaign next month and are excited that focus groups loved GlobalHue's new creative work."

Tourism's press release said 663,767 visitors came to Bermuda in 2007, making it the third consecutive year of visitor increases in both cruise and air arrivals. It stated numbers fell off in 2008 "mainly as a result of the global economic downturn".

Shadow Tourism Minister Michael Dunkley last night dismissed that information as spin.

Sen. Dunkley said in a statement: "Today's formal contract announcement by the Government gives rise to another major concern of ours and that is the Minister's long-standing use of spin; this time to justify the contract award to GlobalHue.

"Dr. Brown cited the 'tremendous impact' of the 2006 advertising campaign that in 2007 gave Bermuda 'the best year for visitor arrivals in 20 years.'

"This is spin that blinds people to some hard-core realities about the declining state of our tourism industry.

"First, the fact that the Minister cites Global Hue's 2006-07 record is spin by omission given the fact that in 2008 visitor arrival numbers fell catastrophically — on the Brown-Global Hue watch.

"Second, Bermuda's tourism marketing aims to attract air visitors and in 2007 their numbers were well below the numbers from 1991 to 2000.

"The 2007 result was driven by an unprecedented reliance on cruise visitors, who outnumbered air visitors for the first time since the start of mass tourism in the 1960s.

"The distinction between cruise and air visitors is important to keep in mind if one wants a realistic understanding of how we are doing in the tourism business. Hotel visitors to Bermuda spend roughly eight times more than cruise visitors."

In 2008, air arrivals were down nearly 14 percent and visitors spent $111.4 million less than they did in 2007.

Sen. Dunkley said: "2008 ranks among the worst years in the history of Bermuda tourism. That the Premier and his Government have given GlobalHue a slap on the back and a new deal without looking at competitive bids that might have offered greater efficiencies and a better advertising plan suggests other considerations were in play."

This newspaper also asked Tourism and the Premier why the contract was not put out to tender, and what Dr. Brown thought of reports that the reason was because Mr. Coleman is his longtime friend.

Dr. Brown's press secretary Glenn Jones replied: "I'm sure the Premier will be happy to answer them for you (or a colleague) at the quarterly tourism address.

"As you know that event is tailored for briefing the media on tourism matters and answering questions. A date for that address will be announced shortly."

The Tourism press release congratulated GlobalHue for securing a marketing partnership with the Boston Red Sox.

Dr. Brown stated: "Consistently I have received e-mails and letters from strangers saying how pleased they are about this new deal.

"The newsletter editor for the Red Sox says he's been inundated with ideas from fans who want to plan a destination event like a Red Sox Nation cruise to Bermuda or perhaps a golf tournament on the Island. This partnership is creating a response better than I had expected."