Opposition Leader Kim Swan has hit back against "dismissive" comments by the Premier — claiming a tourism authority would comply with recommendations set out in the Bermuda First Report.

Earlier this week the United Bermuda Party leader said Government should "seriously consider" a tourism authority to take the industry forward. Mr. Swan argued it would give stakeholders, rather than a political party, the power to shape the hospitality industry.

Premier Ewart Brown questioned the UBP's motives and told this paper: "I have always suspected that [the UBP] wanted an authority in order to shift the decision-making role totally from Government to the private sector.

"If a tourism authority is a future consideration, it will be up to the new PLP administration. We have found ways, without an authority, to work effectively with the private sector as we have seen in the airline aspect of our work."

Yesterday Mr. Swan called the statement "dismissive" and said the Bermuda First Committee, on which Dr. Brown sat as co-chair, had originally suggested it. "In Bermuda today, the public-private partnership on tourism is driven out of the Government's Department of Tourism, which regularly consults with entrepreneurs and stakeholders in the industry. Bermuda should consider solidifying that partnership by formally establishing a tourism authority with ultimate public oversight.

"There would be two main benefits of establishing a tourism authority. First, it would increase the amount of energy and effort the private sector invested in Bermuda's overall hospitality industry by formally giving private sector stakeholders a seat at the table. "Second, it would increase the consistency and transparency of Government policies in tourism by somewhat insulating those policies from change from one government administration to the next. Many public-private tourism authorities have been very effective."

Mr. Swan explained that British Columbia's tourism authority successfully led the effort to attract the Olympics to Vancouver in 2010. Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean, was also able to show a 41 percent increase in visitors in the first half of 2008 compared to the previous year, Mr. Swan said. "A tourism authority transcends partisan politics as it represents what is best for Bermuda and the need to implement a tourism authority to rebuild our struggling tourism industry."