No, the PLP is not to blame for the decline in tourism air arrivals.  They’re to blame for terrible misleading charts but not the decline as it is something that has happened since 1980.

The real hard truth is that Bermudians are to blame.  We can point the finger all we want at politicians but it won’t change the truth.

Oh, but it was 9/11 and 2 recessions.  Sorry to burst your bubble but no, it wasn’t.

The Caribbean Tourism Organization publishes extensive stats on it.  Unfortunately they used to be free and now they’re stupidly expensive so my alternative is to use google images search.

Here’s one.  Arrivals down in the recession?  Not much, spending was.  9/11 fear?  Only till 2004.

Some countries did just fine, like the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Jamaica.

Even Haiti saw improvement from 2006

Let’s stop kidding ourselves.  It’s not a “Platnium Period”, we haven’t set a “gold standard” and for the love of all that is holy it isn’t a “Tourism Renaissance”.

We’d be lucky to call it green shoots appearing long after we thought the plant was dead.

Who’s responsible?  We are.