The National Tourism Strategy Plan has created five “overall objectives” including returning air arrivals to 1980 peak levels and get tourists spending to $1.4 billion in the next decade, Parliament has heard.Tourism Minister Wayne Furbert told the House of Assembly yesterday that the Tourism Board has approved the Draft Plan which proposes to reduce “seasonability” or dependence on the summer months for generating revenue; “rebalance” air versus cruise ship arrivals in the short term to 2007 levels and in the long term to “1980 peak levels of 482,000” and maintain cruise arrivals until recovery.Once stability arrives, cruise ship arrivals will be capped “according to capacity constraints”.And Mr Furbert said tourists’ expenditure under the master plan “is expected to reach $676 million by 2015 and $1.468 billion by 2022” with the tax income hitting $58 million and $97 million by those milestones.Mr Furbert added: “The direct contribution to GDP has the potential to grow from 5.2 percent to 6.4 percent by 2022.”If successful, the plan could increase the number of jobs in the industry from the 3,600 people employed in tourism last year to more than 6,000 in ten years time.The fifth objective in the Draft Plan is to “attract and secure investment with a structured approach to seeking out investors”.Mr Furbert said the “overall aspirational vision for Bermuda” is to create an “innovative, moderand and sophisticated year round destination”, using its natural beauty and cultural heritage and other resources to create “authentic Bermudian experiences” for visitors.The Minister expects that the plan will be presented to him on time at the end of this month.Stakeholders participated in a weekend retreat last week with Tourism Board members, the Department of Tourism team and agency partner.“The purpose was to ensure that all efforts towards our sales, promotion and marketing are aligned with the plan,” said Mr Furbert.“All parties left the weekend retreat upbeat, excited, and ready to work together to improve on our tourism product,” he added.Mr Furbert added: “I too, am excited and havign seen the full presentation of the Draft Plan, I am sure that T&L will develop a plan that will lead us in the right direction.”The Minister told his parliamentary colleagues that both phase one and two of the plan have been completed.“T&L conducted two multi-stakeholder workshops with over 60 stakeholders. The next step will be the Action Plan phase,” said Mr Furbert.“Bermuda faces challenges in developing tourism,” he said, based on T&L’s preliminary findings from the diagnostic study.“Some of the areas identified are the lack of clear positioning and brand identity, high competition from the US and Caribbean markets and limited demand drivers/ limited activities and tourism experience,” said the Minister.