For­mer tourism min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell has ac­cused the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture of mis­lead­ing the coun­try in her pre­sen­ta­tion of Car­ni­val sta­tis­tics, as fresh da­ta from the Cen­tral Sta­tis­ti­cal Of­fice and a Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion re­quest out­lines a more de­tailed pic­ture of vis­i­tor ar­rivals.

He said, “In their haste to pat them­selves on the back and de­liv­er a pos­i­tive nar­ra­tive, the Min­is­ters of Trade and Tourism and Cul­ture have to­tal­ly mis­led the coun­try on the Car­ni­val sta­tis­tics.”

The is­sue stems from the dates vis­i­tor ar­rivals from Car­ni­val have been his­tor­i­cal­ly mea­sured. Mitchell ar­gues the count be­gins 19 days be­fore Ash Wednes­day. How­ev­er the gov­ern­ment fig­ures be­gan from Jan­u­ary 1st, which was 44 days be­fore Ash Wednes­day this year.