Premier Jennifer Smith was accused yesterday of trying to "pull the wool over people's eyes'' by claiming in her Christmas message that there is a turnaround in tourism.

Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell said it was "outrageous'' for the Premier to make the claim when the Island was heading for its worst tourism year since 1980.

"It is frankly trying to pull the wool over people's eyes by trying, in the face of our worst year in 20 years, to claim that there is a turnaround,'' he told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

"It seems to be an outrageous interpretation of what has been a very difficult year.

"There is no justification for the Premier's Christmas message of 2000 being a turn-around year for tourism.

"The Premier and Tourism Minister David Allen seem to have been doing so much travelling this year that they do not see, or choose to close their eyes to, the most significant single year of decline in memory.'' Air arrivals for October dropped by 19 percent compared to the same period last year, according to recent Government figures, and cruise visitors overtook air arrivals -- which Mr. Dodwell believes is an ominous first.

The Tourism Department report for October states that air arrivals are expected to remain flat for the next two to three years until new hotel development projects are completed.

In her Christmas message, the Premier said the "turnaround in tourism'' was one of the events this year that gave her greatest pleasure.

But Mr. Dodwell said: "This is spin doctoring of the numbers by government politicians in spite of the Ministry of Tourism's statistical report (for October) saying that the total number of air arrivals will remain flat.

"How can there be a turnaround if they remain flat. Further, the Minister is altering a previous prediction he made of 10,000 extra arrivals this year; (yet his Department) is saying that we will have at least two or three more years of no upward movement -- more back peddling.'' Mr. Dodwell said that for the year to date, bed nights were down 13 percent and retail spending was down 8.3 percent.

Premier accused of `misleading' "Thus, key numbers of air arrivals, bed nights and spending are all down, and length of stay was flat,'' continued Mr. Dodwell.

"These statistics are the best way as a whole, rather than just air arrivals alone, of ascertaining, if there is decline or progress. These declines are a worrying trend.'' Mr. Dodwell said the ratio of cruise arrivals to air arrivals was "way out of kilter''. And he believes October was the first month cruise ship visitors outnumbered air arrivals -- topping the 200,000 mark.

"This reminds me of what the Bahamas went through about 10-15 years ago when arrivals went shooting due to incredible increase in cruise ships and unemployment went up at the same rate.

"They then realised they had got it wrong and that numbers did not matter as much as getting air arrivals in. Since then they have moved in the right direction of rebuilding the hotel industry.'' Mr. Dodwell added that he was alarmed that the hotel industry was not speaking out about the failure of cruise-and-stay policy and increased reliance on cruise visitors.

Calls to the Premier's office for comment yesterday went unanswered.