Government’s Statistics department revealed on Friday the shocking news that Bermuda’s air arrivals in the second quarter were the lowest since 1980, while visitor spending plummeted by $18 million in just three months.
Contrast this with the Premier’s overheated spin of just a few days ago, when he announced that “August 2008 air arrivals were on par with blockbuster August 2007 performance”!
- This illustrates perfectly the necessity that Government statistics should be dealt with by a seperate and independent Statistics department rather than a Ministry which is tempted to play games with the numbers to look good.
- The numbers are THAT bad … BEFORE the US recession has even started.
- Yes, you read that correctly. Our tourist arrivals are back at 1980 levels. That’s twenty eight years ago. When Jimmy Carter was president. When everyone was wondering who shot JR on Dallas. When MS DOS was the cutting edge in desktop computing. Before the 1981 general strike that caused the first major dip in Bermuda tourism arrivals.
Bermuda tourism has been on the slide for a long time. Dr. Brown appears to be attending its death bed. Getting things done.
Yeah yeah, Beyoncé came. But did it really do anything for tourism? Or was it just a big game of Bread and Circus to boost Government’s popularity? I hope we can have a transparent and frank discussion of the costs of the Music Festival and its actual effect on tourism industry. We all love having a big concert with big stars in little Bermuda – but I am not convinced this is a good expenditure of taxpayer money.
No Comments so far ↓
Sorry, we are not accepting Plantation Comments.