Shadow Tourism Minister Michael Dunkley is questioning why Tourism is afraid of open tendering after GlobalHue was given another two-year contract to market Bermuda despite arrivals falling almost 14 percent last year.

His comments come after Premier and Tourism Minister Dr. Ewart Brown defended the $28 million two-year contract, which was renewed without being put out to tender, on his Facebook page.

The Premier wrote: "I believe that unless there are strong reasons to discontinue an agency's work, at least 4-5 years are needed to determine fairly the impact of an ad agency.

"There was an internal review of the performance and adjustments were made."

But Senator Dunkley said the UBP disagreed with an 'internal review' because it was less likely to generate the critical independent analysis needed in reality-based decision-making.

He told The Royal Gazette: "In the absence of openness, suspicions grow about what is going on, particularly given reports of the Premier's friendship with the owner of GlobalHue.

"It raises a big question about motives and casts doubt on whether serving the public interest is Government's primary concern.

"Another point we want to make is this: What is Tourism afraid of?"

Sen. Dunkley said open bidding could have seen new thinking and alternate approaches.

"At the very least, even if the Premier was inclined to continue with GlobalHue, such an exercise could have been used to keep advertisers on their toes and their thinking sharp.

"The Premier's renewal of the GlobalHue contract avoided that and, as a result, he has given it the go-ahead for two more years at a time when it has clearly not succeeded.

"There are big questions within the advertising community about the thinking behind GlobalHue's media buys, whether they are hitting Bermuda's traditional customers or diverting into new, unproven and, to date, inappropriate markets.

"Bermuda Tourism not inviting competitive bids is simply bad business, especially in these tough times when a significant amount of money is in play."

And Sen. Dunkley added that the Opposition didn't buy the Premier's explanations for a leisurely assessment of an advertisers' effectiveness four to five years.

He added: "It is prudent and practical to make sure at regular intervals that an advertiser was hitting its marks; that it was connecting with customers. There are measures that can be applied to determine the efficacy of a media buy."

The Premier indicated there was no need to review unless there were "strong reasons" for doing so.

But Mr. Dunkley said: "We believe there are a number of strong reasons for doing so.

"We believe 2008 gave him very strong reasons to review the situation and to invite the interest of other agencies.

"Bermuda in 2008 recorded significant losses in visitor numbers from our traditional markets with arrivals falling nearly 14 percent on the year."

And Sen. Dunkley claimed Bermuda's profile as a vacation destination among potential travellers was shockingly below that of competing destinations with its performance ranked near the bottom of all 30 Caribbean destinations.

"The Premier's Facebook statement sidesteps accountability.

"None of these absolutely relevant performance concerns was addressed by the government," said Sen. Dunkley.

The Premier declined further comment on the GlobalHue contract until the next Tourism Quarterly address. No date has yet been made public for the event.