Last year appears to have been worse for Bermuda tourism than for the rest of the Caribbean, according to figures released by the Associated Press.

In fact, although it suffered through one of the worst hurricane seasons in history, the entire Caribbean saw an increase in arrivals of seven percent in 2004, and an increase in cruise ship passengers of 13 percent.

Islands such as the Caymans were seeing increases of more than 14 percent for the first half of the year, while Jamaica appeared to be the country most comparable to Bermuda.

Bermuda was lucky enough to be hurricane-free in 2004 ? but overall tourist arrivals decreased by 0.9 percent over 2003, a decrease attributed to the Carnival Cruise Lines mega ships which visited the Island in 2003 but not 2004. Air arrivals in 2004 were up by a healthy margin of nearly six percent, however cruise arrivals sank by nearly nine percent.