American Airlines will operate from Miami five times a week - as JetBlue gears up to fly out of Boston.

The announcement came as Premier and Tourism Minister Ewart Brown also revealed that air arrivals for the first quarter of this year were up 17.8 percent compared to last year and that overall, visitor arrivals were up 23 percent.

Dr. Brown announced the first quarter tourism statistics and premiered new tourism advertisements and promotional fare at the Fairmont Southampton Princess yesterday.

The announcements came on the heels of Zoom’s new twice weekly flight from the UK to Bermuda, which went on sale last week. The increased service from Miami starts on June 14 and JetBlue’s Boston flight starts next month.

Traditionally the first quarter has been known as the low season, but Dr. Brown pointed to arrivals figures, which saw an additional 9,000 people visit Bermuda compared to last year, as proof the Island was a destination year round.

This quarter there have been 45,825 visitors with air arrivals accounting for almost all of them. Arrivals from Boston in particular were promising with 2,000 people using TNT Charters. He said: “The introduction of winter charter service out of the market over the past two winters has stimulated renewed demand for Bermuda.’’

The increase in arrivals also meant hotel occupancy rose by 20.91 percent compared to these three months in 2006.

The “Conversations” advertising campaign which was launched last year continues again. The theme of the ads are overheard conversations about wonderful trips to the island. Dr. Brown said: “It broke through the clutter and placed Bermuda top of mind among our target travellers - no small feat in today’s marketing environment where consumers are bombarded with messaging constantly.”

National heroes have also been roped in to promote the Island with Shaun Goater, Kyle Lightbourne and David Bascome being named official spokesmen for Bermuda. The Premier said he hoped the men would generate business from oversees football fans.

Bermuda’s nightlife has also been tackled by the tourism team. Dr. Brown pointed out that Bermudians are not boring and reserved so the social scene available to tourists shouldn’t be either.

A redevelopment of Bermuda’s nightlife is in the works with events such as a new happy hour called Live in the Gardens on Friday nights. There will also be dinner theatre, open mike nights, dance parties, street festivals, salsa and reggae beach parties for tourists and locals to enjoy. A host of promoters are working with the Department to ensure that there is something for everyone and something to do every night.

He also unveiled this year’s promotional give away. Last year there was the “Pop By” flags this year there is a new energy drink “Bermuda Pink”.

Dr. Brown ran into the manufactories of Arizona Ice Tea several months ago and the concept of an energy drink just for Bermuda was born. The pink drink a view of a Bermuda’s pink sand was created and bottled specifically on the Island.

The are available at events sponsored by the Department.

With visitor arrivals up during the low season months the Island could expect to high numbers this summer he predicted and added that the Department of Tourism had brought Bermuda back into the market with low fares, good advertising and an exciting product. Hotel development will be the next on the list. He pointed to the need to bring the number of hotel beds on the Island back up to the 1970s level and spoke of the several developments currently requesting planning permission.

Dr. Brown said: “Make no mistake about it - we are in the business of ensuring that Bermuda Tourism and all that we have to offer as a premier vacation destination is the envy of the world, therefore we continue to evolve as a Ministry so that we achieve our objectives.”