Tourism brought more than $500 million to the Island in 2002, but the Department of Tourism's Economic Impact Report still makes for grim reading.

Although visitors numbers increased year-on-year from the September 11-hit 2001, the Island's vital industry still remains at its lowest ebb for nearly 30 years.

Just 484,034 visited Bermuda last year, 26,000 more than the previous year but 55,000 fewer than 2000 and 150,000 fewer than the 1985 peak.

Cruise ship passengers, traditionally much lower spenders than our visitors by air, made up more than 200,000 of those who came here.

Tourism-related employment, unsurprisingly, also hit a new low, dipping below 5,000 for the first time.

"There has been a notable increase in tourists to Bermuda in 2002, which is a positive sign after the off year in 2001, resulting from the terrorist attacks in the United States," read the executive summary of the report, compiled by Total Marketing and Communications Ltd. and Canadian affiliate Corporate Research Associates, on behalf of the Department of Tourism.

"Despite the rebound over last year, the number of visitors to Bermuda did not return to pre-2001 levels. Indeed, it is evident that the long-term trend has been a steady decline in air visitors, primarily from the United States.

"The continuing challenge facing the Government of Bermuda is to reverse the downward trend in air visitors. While the increase in cruise visitors does offset a portion of the decline, it is clear that air visitors are much more valuable to the Bermudian economy than their cruise counterparts.

"Finally, there is a clear need for an updated input-output model for Bermuda to help ensure an accurate measure of the impact of tourism on the economy."

Tourists spent an estimated $379 million here in 2002, this generated over $400 million in on-Island income and close to $100 million in public sector revenue.

Taking into account the imports needed to sustain the tourism industry, the report estimated that the visitors made a net injection of around $300 million to the Bermudian economy.

The figures also showed that although there has been a marked decline in tourism-related employment on the Island, there has actually been an increase in the restaurant sector since 1998.