Leaders in the hotel community last night attributed increased occupancy to affordable airfares.

On one night this August the Fairmont Hamilton Princess' numbers jumped 20 percent from the same night a year ago.

Last year on Friday, August 11 the hotel was only 77 percent full while this year on the same date Friday, August 10 the occupancy was 97 percent.

Manager of Fairmont Hamilton Princess Allan Trew, last night said he believes his hotel is almost full because tourists can now afford to fly to Bermuda.

"It has been this way all summer. There has been a noticeable increase of visitors coming in on Thursday until Monday or Tuesday," Mr. Trew said.

"The visitors are coming specifically for the weekend. In my opinion it's because it is more affordable to get here now. People are doing more weekends because they can come for just three or four nights."

Not only has he seen an increase in visitors for the Hamilton Princess, but also the customers have changed from business people who leave on the weekend to leisure travellers who visit only on the weekend.

Jet Blue, in particular, has helped bring down airfares and has increased visitors for the Fairmont Southampton Princess, which has also seen a change in clientele, according to Shelley Meszoly the hotel's Regional Director of Sales and Marketing.

"North American continues to be the majority of our visitors, but we have also seen an increase in our customers coming from the United Kingdom," Ms Meszoly said. "It is probably due to the introduction of Zoom airlines and the seven-day British Airways flight."

The Southampton Princess was 99.9 percent full for August 9 through to the 11 this year, 90 percent on Sunday, August 12 and 88.5 percent full on Monday, August 13.

The Sunday and Monday numbers have both increased almost 15 percent-from 75 percent last year to 90 and 88.5 percent, respectively- the same days last year.

Glenn Jones, the Premier's Press Secretary provided numbers for the period of August 9 to the 13 this year only, which also reveal high occupancy for other hotel leaders on the Island.

Elbow Beach reached an occupancy rate of 93 percent on August 9, 91 percent on August 10, 93 percent on August 11, 86 percent on August 12 and 91 percent on August 13 this year. For two days this past week, on August 9 and August 11, Grotto Bay was 100 percent full with 99 percent occupancy on August 10, 95 percent on August 12 and 96 percent last night.

Surf Side hotel was 100 percent full every night from August 9 until last night and the Reefs Hotel only dipped from 100 percent occupancy over the same five-day period last night to 97 percent.

From August 9 to August 11, Pink Beach was 99 percent full with two days, August 12 and 13 dipping down slightly to 98 percent. While Ariel Sands experienced varying degrees of occupancy for August 9 until last night with 94, 81, 88, 75 and 75 percent occupancy rates on the respective days. Grape Bay was 96 percent full on both Thursday, August 9 and last night with 92 percent occupancy for the three nights in between.

Larry Lamb, a general manager of Pompano Beach Hotel last night said their occupancy has also been very high this summer much the same as last year.

"It has certainly been a good summer. We are running virtually the same occupancy as last summer," he said.

For Thursday, August 9 to Sunday August 12 Pompano was 100 percent full while dipping down to 97 percent full last night. "Thank goodness the numbers seem to be continuing," Mr. Lamb added, "Our challenge is the other eight months of the year, but I think the PGA Grand Slam will help that."