has learned taxpayers got hit with an $18,000 bill to fly entertainers to Bermuda on a private jet last weekend for the Ministry of Tourism?s International Love Festival.

Ministry of Tourism Director Cherie-Lynn Whitter provided the information yesterday upon an e-mail request from this newspaper.

Ms Whitter said: ?The jet was retained specifically to accommodate the talent for the Saturday evening show.

?It was retained at below market value through a visitor attending the event.

?The cost to the taxpayer was $18,000.?

Ms. Whitter did not identify the ?visitor?.

Motown act Ashford & Simpson needed help getting to the Island from New York because stormy weather on the US East Coast last week forced airlines to cancel hundreds of commercial flights.

By Saturday the weather improved, but many aeroplanes were stuck in the wrong airports without the crew needed to operate them.

If the private jet wasn?t hired, the crooner duo Nickolas Ashford and Valarie Simpson, would have likely missed their performance before about 80 couples, including Premier Ewart Brown and his wife Wanda.

The Shadow Minister for Tourism David Dodwell believes the taxpayer was taken to the cleaners.

He thinks the private jet was hired mainly to satisfy the Premier?s ego, not to save the event.

Mr. Dodwell said last night: ?What you?ve got here is profiling. This would be highly unusual activity and it kind of points to: was this event put on for profiling or was it put on as a legitimate exercise of tourism to get people here??

The Love Festival is an event marketed to couples all over the world through the internet. Some couples receive personal invitations through the mail from the Premier and his wife.

The Browns hosted the three-night event from February 16 to February 19.

This was the Love Festival?s second year and planning has already begun for the third instalment in February 2008.

The 2007 event was said to include a Champagne, Martini and Chocolate Welcome Reception, a private dance party and a Sunday Gospel Brunch.

According to Ms Whitter, 81 couples attended the event ? 76 of them from overseas.

The Ministry of Tourism?s website says Love Festival package prices started at $760 per person. That means revenue for 81 couples paying the minimum price would be $123,120, part of which goes to Fairmont Southampton, the host hotel. But even before that deduction, the $18,000 plane ride eats away 15 percent of the gross income. is not privy to the actual income figures.

Ashford & Simpson also performed at the Premier?s Gala Weekend last month. The Progressive Labour Party hosted the event. The Party Chairman would not reveal the amount paid to secure the talent.

But a local promoter, using his contacts in the United States, told$25,000 to $30,000 was a reasonable estimate.

Mr. Dodwell figures the Premier, who is also the Minister of Tourism, got loose with the public purse.

The Opposition MP said: ?Was it worth it? What did the Government invest in this weekend?

?In addition to this charter there was marketing, advertising, it must have been a huge number for the amount of visitors that came.

?Did the taxpayer get value for money? I submit not.?

Mr. Dodwell said it would have been wiser to spend public money on the XL Tennis Tournament or the Bermuda International Film Festival because those events provide a sustained marketing benefit through the media and bring in hundreds of people.

Government recently withdrew sponsorship from those two events.

Although Ms Whitter, the Tourism Director, provided the requested information yesterday, it?s not clear whether or not she made the decision to hire a private jet.

She was also asked if the Premier flew on the jet with Ashford & Simpson and the answered we received was ?no?.