Opposition leader Kim Swan is calling for Premier Ewart Brown to resign as Tourism Minister.

Mr. Swan points to major drops in vacation and cruise arrivals, and air arrivals from core US markets — and says the Premier should hand over the reins to someone who can focus on achieving better results.

For the past four years, Dr. Brown has promoted an "image of recovery" through statistical manipulation, special events promotions, new hotel announcements and huge increases in cruise visitors numbers, according to Mr. Swan.

However, the United Bermuda Party leader says in reality the situation remains depressed.

In a comment piece in today's Royal Gazette, Mr. Swan lists a series of decisions made by Dr. Brown which he says have significantly contributed to failures within Tourism.

These include the ongoing controversial move to replace Bermudians in the North American Tourism Office with Americans from US firm Sales Focus, which Mr. Swan says was badly timed in the summer.

"The sales reorganisation was the latest development in a series of decisions by the PLP Government that has severely weakened Bermuda's presence in the market place," says Mr. Swan.

He adds that arrivals had not been greatly boosted by costly initiatives such as this week's Music Festival — in which one star alone, thought to be Beyonce, is being paid $500,000 and getting another $500,000 in expenses.

And accusing Dr. Brown of hiding the truth about the state of the tourism industry, Mr. Swan adds: "This week's description of the August arrivals as a 'blockbuster' month is simply misleading and typical of the spin.

"We got a peek at the loose talk last week when unsold Music Festival tickets were returned from the US for local sales. How that squares with the Minister's statement in July that the festival was 'sold out' remains to be seen.

"Bermuda needs a minister who is straight with the people."

Dr. Brown, through his Press Secretary Glenn Jones, refused to comment last night.

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