New in-depth data reveals the number of visitors arriving by air for vacation purposes has dropped over the last five months.

The Department of Tourism released comprehensive visitor profiles for the months of April through August which show that, compared to 2006 figures, the number of tourists flying to Bermuda solely for pleasure has dropped, at times by as much as 15 percent.

Previously such statistics have not been released to the media.

Meanwhile the percentage of people visiting the Island on business has jumped by double digits every month when compared to 2006 figures.

And overall air arrival figures show that there has been a drop in visitors during the summer months traditionally known as the high tourism season compared to the 2006 summer.

Due to an impressive first quarter, the year-to-date arrivals figure is 2.4 percent higher than January through August of 2006.

The breakdown in air arrivals figures was compiled by the Department of Tourism, which classified the purpose of each visitor's stay in Bermuda. They appear to show that as a vacation destination Bermuda has slipped but as a business travel destination the Island is booming.

April saw a 13.3 percent drop in people coming on vacation by plane compared to 2006's arrivals figures. Meanwhile, the number of people visiting the Island for work rose by 52 percent. April's overall arrivals figure was down by 3.9 percent.

Though May saw an increase in the number of visitors, by 1.9 percent, holidaymakers flying to the Island fell by 6.6 percent. In May alone 5,448 people came to Bermuda for business, which was a 46.7 percent increase compared to May 2006.

And June saw the number of people coming on holiday by plane slip again by 14.1 percent, with 25,955 people coming on vacation in 2007 compared to 30,265 in 2006. This time the number of people coming on business doubled from 2,991 in 2006 to 4,498 in 06. The overall arrivals figure this June fell by 0.8 percent.

In a press release issued prior to The Royal Gazette receiving these detailed figures Premier Ewart Brown stated that the slip in arrivals figures by 1.5 percent for the second quarter, April to June, could be attributed to the closure of the Wyndham Hotel and Harmony Club.

Dr. Brown said:"If they have no place to stay, they don't come it's that simple. That's why the Government has been a strong proponent of new hotel construction.

"If the Wyndham was still open, for example, and just 70 percent full that small second quarter dip would be a steep increase."

The slip in overall air arrivals continued in July with 37,473 coming to the Island compared to 2006's figure of 38,529.

Again the number of people arriving on holiday fell, by 9.6 percent, while the number of people on business rose 26.1 percent.

August saw the best arrivals figures with overall air arrivals up 2.2. percent and holidaymakers arrivals down by just 3.1 percent. The number of businessmen and women coming to the Island was up 23.9 percent. This translated to higher occupancy levels at hotels as well. Eight-eight percent of hotel rooms were occupied in August, up 4.5 percent compared to 2006 and 20.9 percent compared to 2005's occupancy rate in August.

The percentages and figures quoted in this article do no take into account the number of people who fly the Island to visit a friend or family member.

Over the four-month period 24,381 people stated that their purpose of visiting Bermuda was 'friend/relative' an increase of 30 percent. The Department's figures did not reveal how many of these visitors stayed with residents and how many stayed in hotels.

The Premier did not respond to requests for comment on the full air arrival statistics before press time.