colonies, the Bermuda Hotel Association reported yesterday.

And these accommodations combined to achieve a final occupancy of 75.6 percent for the month of August -- 1.7 points ahead of the level attained in August of last year and 7.6 points ahead of August, 1995.

BHA president Dennis Tucker reported that, as of September 1, bookings for September, October and November stood at 60.6, 58.3 and 38.6 percent respectively. All the figures are up over last year's bookings at the same time.

"I think this is heartening news,'' said Tourism Minister David Dodwell.

"This is the second month that we have been ahead of the previous year's final number. August was ahead of last year for hotel occupancy and July was ahead of last year.

"It is also the second month in a row that projections for the next three months are ahead of last year.'' Mr. Dodwell also noted there would be some good news mixed in with the bad when Tourism's August arrival figures are released.

"Arrivals are going to be slightly down on last year for the month of August,'' he said. "But the other thing that is important to look at is that while arrivals are going to show slightly off for the month of August, hotel occupancies and room nights are up.'' And he noted: "Projections for room nights over the next three months -- September, October and November -- are up by around 9,200 over the same time in 1995.'' This was a "better measure'' for tourism, he continued, because visitor arrivals reflected people who flew to the Island to visit family and did not stay in visitor accommodation.

"Room nights are a better measurement of the success of marketing than arrivals.'' But Mr. Dodwell did not jump to put the increases down to marketing alone. "I always said the downtrend was not just because of marketing so the same has to be true of this up trend. It is so difficult to isolate what is causing the increase as the marketplace is so fickle.'' He added: "Part of the increase is due to the Summer of '97 package which billed the airfare into the package.'' The Summer of '97 promotion focuses on special air-inclusive trips from key markets with $97 airfares.