Bermuda specifically.

The news comes on the heels of recent airport arrival figures which are up eight percent for the year over 1992.

Travel wholesalers in the eastern US surveyed by The Royal Gazette nearly all reported business to Bermuda was up this year.

At Travel Impressions in Farmingdale, New York, director of Caribbean purchasing Miss Claire Lockley said Bermuda was showing "a healthy increase for 1993.'' In the past year, Travel Impressions became a US-wide wholesaler for American Airlines, and Miss Lockley attributed the increase to that fact, as well as her company's close ties with the Bermuda Department of Tourism.

Also, "there is a natural surge in business this year,'' she said. "There was a war (in Iraq) and a lot of people cut back. Last year, there was a very serious recession.

"Now, I think we've finally come out of that trend.'' A spokesman for Go Go Tours in New Jersey said Bermuda business was "wonderful'' this year.

"We are having record bookings,'' she said. "We normally average a couple of hundred bookings a week, and we are surpassing that.'' At Thomas Cook Travel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Bermuda product manager Mr.

Gerry Nagle said business to the Island was "doing very well'' this year.

But at Certified Vacations in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, director of marketing and public relations Ms Cynthia Howland said business to Bermuda was only "okay.'' The Hartford market had been strong for Certified, but was adversely affected by a loss of airline service, she said.

Bermuda had 72,431 air visitors between January 1 and April 18. That was an increase of 5,380 over the same period a year earlier.

For the week that ended April 18, there were 10,026 arrivals at the Civil Air Terminal, up 24 percent over the same week a year earlier. The four-week moving total, which is considered a more accurate barometer, showed a 14.6 percent rise.