Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas launched a staunch defence of the passenger survey in the face of implied criticism from the Department for Enterprise.

At times, his apparent exasperation at the questioning of the passenger survey’s findings and its publication seemed to indicate a rift might be developing in the Council of Ministers.

He insisted the figures were accurate.

He also rejected criticism that the figures were released just before the Easter weekend, pointing out that they were first released on March 9 as part of the quarterly economic report, before it was decided to issue a release with the specific passenger survey on March 30.

That later announcement led to a flurry of media debate about the possible decline of tourism.

Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey) said if the Cabinet Office had been more ’careful’ about the information release, ensuring it was in the context of all other available data, there might have been a less dramatic response from the public and ’we wouldn’t be having this conversation’.

But Mr Thomas hit back: ’Cabinet Office is responsible for official statistics.

’I do not want to get into "I did this, I did that", "he said this, he said that".

’The truth is this passenger survey was first discussed between departments and relevant officers at the end of January. There was continuing discussion through February and March.

’There are lessons to be learned for everybody involved. Let’s leave it at that.’

Jason Moorhouse (Arbory, Castletown and Malew) had earlier asked Mr Thomas to explain the relationship between the passenger survey and other data.

The Minister said: ’The passenger survey is based upon the actual numbers of departures through both the airport and the sea terminal.

’The survey is used to split departing passengers into Manx residents or visitors, and then what kind of visitor they are.’

He added: ’The new data that has been discussed, particularly in the media, by the transport and hospitality sector, has not been previously factored into the passenger survey and not all of that data would be suitable for inclusion within the passenger survey.

’For example, data from hotels would not help in identifying visitors who stay with friends or family, which is a key part of the visitor community.’

But he agreed that other new data, including where passengers had started their journey from, was potentially useful.

The Steam Packet had already agreed to provide that data and all airlines had also been requested to participate.

’If this type of passenger data is suitable for use and is provided by a significant proportion of the transport sector, then the survey would not be required to split passengers into Manx residents or visitors,’ he said.

’However, the survey will still be required in order to produce estimates of the type of visitor to the island, what they are spending and other qualitative information.’

He added that the government was committed to ’review and implement changes to the way we collect, analyse and report national statistics by April 2019, which includes the passenger survey’.