Tourism Minister Shawn Crockwell has backed the new Bermuda Tourism Authority in the wake of the latest visitor figures.

Mr Crockwell said: “Although it’s still very early days into the BTA’s stewardship, I am much encouraged by all the positive activity surrounding tourism.”

He was speaking after the BTA revealed that tourist numbers went up by five percent in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2013.

And BTA chief Bill Hanbury added that total visitor arrivals to the end of June had gone up by four percent.

But air arrivals fell by three percent in quarter two compared to the previous year — 2,176 fewer visitors — while year to date arrivals were down two percent (2,509 people) compared to the previous year.

Mr Crockwell said the second quarter of the year was sometimes “the hardest quarter to quantify” due to fluctuations in the number of available rooms, airlift, the number of cruise ship calls, conventions and conferences.

“I am satisfied that our overall visitor numbers are up for this second quarter and, yes, there has been a slight dip in the air arrivals by three percent, but I remain confident that we are doing everything possible to arrest our tourism decline,” he said.

“The BTA are focused on their marketing strategies, which have already begun to see positive results for Bermuda.”

The BTA figures revealed that the number of hotel room nights booked in the second quarter dropped four percent on the same period last year and by two percent in the year to date compared to 2013.

The BTA officially took over the Island’s tourism drive in April, replacing the Department of Tourism.

Unveiling the figures, Mr Hanbury said that despite the fall in hotel figures the potential of the BTA to boost the business had increased.

He added that increased use of new technology meant that marketing could be targeted at “multiple areas of untapped opportunity ready to be exploited.”