when the top man from the Holland-America Line visits the Island tomorrow.

President Mr. Kirk Lanterman arrives on the Holland-America Statendam and will entertain local dignitaries.

But his visit coincides with the news that Statendam will not be coming to Bermuda next season.

The ship has made three visits this year, and will make its final trip to Dockyard tomorrow morning.

It is destined to cruise on two round-the-world trips and a number of journeys to Mediterranean, Baltic and British destinations.

A spokesman for the Holland-America line, which is represented by the Harnett and Richardson Agency in Bermuda, said: "There are no plans for Statendam to come back next year.

"However we have a new ship, Maasdan , which we are expecting to get next year and no plans have been made for its itinerary yet.

"Our problem is that our ships are getting to be too big for Hamilton and it is about time the St. George's channel was widened for bigger ships.'' Ms Sylvie Swainson, at Harnett and Richardson, said: " Statendam is too big to take to Hamilton if Song of America is in port. We have taken it to Hamilton and it towers above Front Street.'' Maasdan will be making inaugural trips from Europe to New York but it is not yet known whether it will come to Bermuda in the near future.

The loss of a few thousand visitors from the Statendam visits is the only bad news after an improved cruise ship season.

And with news expected soon on the St. George's cruise ship, next year also promises to be successful.

All local agents have been delighted with the increase in numbers of passengers, and retailers have also noted increased trade from cruise visitors.

From January 1 to October 24 some 148,731 visitors had cruised into the Island. That represents an increase of 20,948 on 1992, a rise of some 16.4 percent.

The season started with the arrival of two new ships, the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line Song of America and the Kloster Cruises Dreamward .

Mr. Stephen Paynter, at Meyer Agencies, which is agent for Dreamward , said the change had been noticeable this year.

"The ships have had virtually full capacity during the whole season,'' he said.

"Even the usual tail-off in September and October has not happened this year.

The ships have remained near full capacity.'' Dreamward made its final visit of the season on October 18, with 1,240 passengers -- 97 percent of its capacity.

Similarly, Horizon had 100 percent and 88 percent occupancy on its last two visits respectively. Horizon left today and will return next season.

Song of America's final two visits of the season, both in October, saw occupancy levels above 98 percent, while Meridian had 983 passengers for its October 18 trip to the West End, which was 88 percent of its capacity.

Ms Swainson was waiting to confirm that Statendam would be full when it arrives in Dockyard tomorrow morning.

She said: "This year appears to have gone particularly well. We have had more or less a full complement on board our ships. It is certainly a lot better than last year.

"Just listening to people in Hamilton it also seems that the cruise passengers are spending money on the Island. The cruise ships appear to be bringing a different type of clientele.'' Mr. Tim Southern of the John S. Darrell agency agreed that it had been a good season for Song of America .

But one area of concern had been the Cut, the entrance to St. George's Harbour. With news of the St. George's cruise ship came fears that its access to the harbour would be limited in bad weather.

However, Mr. Paynter said he had only heard of one incident of a ship being diverted from the harbour this year. "There have been no problems with St.

George's this year although the weather has been better than in previous years,'' he said.

Mr. Southern said ships were only getting into difficulty when the wind was blowing from a certain direction.

DIFFERENT DESTINATION -- Statendam , a regular visitor to Bermuda in recent years, won't be calling in during the 1994 season.