Government?s success in attracting new cheap flights to the Island has not yet resulted in more visitors coming to the Island yet.

But Bermudians are taking advantage of them ? to go shopping.

Returning residents declared a whopping $13.9 million in overseas purchases between April 1 and June 30 ? an increase of $4.1 million or 42.7 percent on the same period a year earlier. Government said in the Quarterly Bulletin of Statistics released on Monday that the increase was due to more residents taking trips abroad and a crackdown on returning residents by Customs at the Airport.

The increase continued in July when overseas purchases climbed by 22.4 percent to $3.97 million from $3.05 million a year earlier.

During the second quarter, the number of locals travelling overseas jumped 17.4 percent surge, with residents taking a total of 37,207 trips in the second quarter. This represented an increase of 5,510 trips over the 33,748 trips in the same period a year ago.

Government said Customs had seen both an increase in the number of claims as well as higher claims totals per declaration.

Government attributed increased travel and greater levels of overseas spending by residents to discounted airfares; residents declaring higher levels on each trip and Customs continuing its tougher approach with ?a more thorough inspection process, which resulted in fewer ?no claims? by returning residents?.

The bulk of the trips ? 71.6 percent or 26,654 ? were to the US, while 4,874 trips were made by residents to Canada and 3,242 trips were made to the UK. Trips made by locals to other countries declined by 13.1 percent to 2,437.

Most of the trips ? 30,293 or 81.4 percent of the total ? were logged as vacations, while 4,871 trips were said to be for business reasons. There were 2,043 trips taken for ?other reasons? including medical.

Purchases of jewellery and watches overseas more than tripled, while expenditure on tapes, records and compact discs jumped by 86.9 percent. Returning residents also declared spending of $2.3 million more in footwear and clothing, a 46.7 percent leap over last year. That was in comparison to a meagre 4.8 percent increase in footwear, clothing and apparel sales on the Island for the same period.