tourism statistics bear it out, Shadow Minister of Tourism David Allen charged yesterday.

"Ridiculous,'' countered Acting Minister of Tourism Pam Gordon. If anything the turnaround in tourism -- albeit weak -- shows the saucy marketing campaign has begun to bear fruit, she said.

Commenting on the news that overall visits to the Island were up by 3.47 percent, the Progressive Labour Party's Mr. Allen said one statistic -- that of visitors arriving by air -- tells the real story.

With an increase of 0.8 percent, air arrivals for 1996 were meagre at best said Mr. Allen, and clearly show all the hype about "Sin Island'', and "Let Yourself Go'' isn't working.

"Visitors arriving by air are the bread and butter of the industry. They're the ones paying to stay in hotels or to eat at restaurants,'' he said.

Most of the gains made this year were because of a strong showing by visitors arriving by cruise ship: "That goes to show you cruise ship operators have been using dynamic ad campaigns themselves. It's because of their efforts and has nothing to do with `Let Yourself Go'.'' With a budget of $34 million Bermuda has yet to receive value for its marketing buck, he said.

The United Bermuda Party's Ms Gordon, however, accused Mr. Allen of playing politics at the expense of the tourism industry: "It's easy to sit back and criticise, but at least we've set targets. The difficulty I have is with the way the Opposition will always play the negativity game, and this hurts us down the road.'' Ms Gordon conceded however visitor arrivals by air were "flat.'' "What can I say. The numbers speak for themselves and it doesn't quite reach the optimistic targets we've set.

"Still it does arrest the negative trend of the past few years, and that provides us with a good base for future improvement.''