Tourism Minister David Allen hit back at his Opposition Shadow, David Dodwell, saying that Government had several initiatives in the works that would help to revive the Tourism industry.

And Mr. Allen also said the current $8 million tourism budget on advertising fell far short of what other countries were spending to attract visitors in the wake of the September 11.

He added that in order to attract the maximum numbers to Bermuda, more capital had to be invested into the tourism budget.

"To say that we don't have a strategy is very misleading," he said. "There must be more money put into the product - parts of the Caribbean are spending $16 million, Florida is spending $20 million - $8 million isn't enough for our budget considering the conflicting cross currents there are."

And he defended his statement to seek a bigger budget, blasting Opposition members who jeered that the Tourism Ministry's advertising budget had dwindled because of overspending.

"We had ceased all advertising after September 11," Mr. Allen said.

"Advertising has restarted in the last few weeks and there are six to seven weeks of unused ads. So, we do have the money. We are a Ministry that manages our funds very well. We are not the Government that spent $100 million over three years or were one quarter over their advertising budget this year. Let those stand as the facts."

During the day of lengthy speeches in the House of Assembly on Friday, UBP members took Government to task on their proposed directives for the upcoming legislative year.

And they challenged the Minister to lay down his strategy for tourism.

Minister Allen detailed several initiatives that he said in the long run would bring Bermuda back to the road of recovery in the Tourism industry.

He said that Government planned to seek another cruise ship to replace the Pacific Princess which will complete service to Bermuda at the end of 2002, saying "we need to strike the balance with the air visitors".

And he said that his Ministry planned to dedicate its efforts to several campaigns in the next few months.

"We want six cruise ships," he said. "To reduce from five or even less would be a travesty for St. George's and Dockyard. We have worked with our partners to plan the summer season - there are a lot of challenges but I believe we have the format to work for us."

In addition, Mr. Allen said that there were plans for a direct flight from Florida, plans to entice business that has uprooted from the Middle East to consider Bermuda as a conference destination and plans to step up efforts in luring visitors from Latin America and Europe.

On the home front, Mr. Allen said there will be more dedication to bringing a local flavour back into the industry with training and internships within the local hotels.

He also said there was a major push to lure college students to vacation in Bermuda in March and moving ahead with the African Diaspora Heritage Trail.