Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell has accused Government of using Hurricane Fabian as an excuse for a poor tourism season.

Tourism Minister Renee Webb said the Island was looking at reasonable numbers for the year, but for Fabian.

But yesterday Mr. Dodwell said: "It's clear that September was badly affected and that will have an impact for the rest of the year, but one thing missing from the Minister's statement was that projections were bad by the end of August for September, October and December.

"So for her to state we were anticipating reasonable visitor numbers for the year end is absolute nonsense.

"It was going to be a terrible Fall season and Fabian has made a terrible Fall even worse, and this is going to be used by the PLP government to disguise another bad year.

"The problems have not been fixed and Fabian comes along and hides the real issues.

"Until the end of August, air arrivals were down 2.8 percent on last year, which was behind 2001. The numbers are in free fall and to say we got close to 2002, that's bad and we need to do a hell of a lot better."

Figures for the year to the end of September this year showed 409,606 people came to Bermuda - 1.9 percent ahead of 2002.

Mr. Dodwell added: "We are looking at 100,000 less visitors since the PLP came to power in 1998. That's a staggering figure in five years with no sign of a turnaround.

"The only saving grace has been that cruise figures are up. I predict that by the end of the year, cruise and air figures will be equal, which is an extremely worrying trend.

"It is good to have cruise arrivals, but when the balance becomes that out of whack we've really got a problem because of the contribution cruise passengers make to the economy compared to air arrivals."

Mr. Dodwell said the United Bermuda Party would support supplementary spending on tourism over the winter, provided there was a proper plan because "we can't wait until Spring to ramp up".

Ms Webb said in yesterday's Royal Gazettethat tourism was in "crisis" and needed to be radically restructured.

Mr. Dodwell said: "The Minister has finally admitted what we've been saying - that tourism is in crisis.

"It is a major statement and a huge indictment of her government to take this long to wake up and realise they are in crisis."