Air arrivals were up and cruise ship arrivals down in 2004, according to figures released by the Department of Tourism yesterday.

Overall arrivals for 2004 decreased by 0.9 percent over 2003 ? a decrease which the Department said was directly related to the Carnival Cruise Lines mega ships which visited the Island in 2003, but not in 2004.

The total number of cruise ship visitors in 2003, with the aid of the mega ships, was 226,097 ? the highest ever recorded. This year, the total was 206,133 ? a number which, the Department said, was still the third highest total in Bermuda?s cruise history.

Air arrivals in 2003, the year Hurricane Fabian devastated the Island shutting down major hotel properties in the last quarter of the year, totalled 256,579.

In 2004 air arrivals increased by a healthy margin of 5.9 percent to 271,617. That total remains below the 2002 total of 284,024 air arrivals.

Discussing total arrivals in 2003 vs. 2004, the Department stated: ?Monthly arrivals lagged slightly at the beginning of 2004 due mainly to a lack of hotel supply (after major resort properties were closed in the wake of Hurricane Fabian).

?The summer months registered net losses, mainly due to a record cruise ship season in 2003.

?These losses were compensated for by a strong September and fourth quarter in 2004, again related to the performance of 2003 and the dip in numbers caused by Hurricane Fabian.?

Air arrivals spent more than five times what cruise ship arrivals spent on the Island in 2004. According to the Exit Survey Study, air arrivals spent on average between $1,021 and $1,177 ? translating into an estimated $277.3 to $319.7 million in 2004.

In contrast, cruise ship arrivals spent on average approximately $185. That translated into an estimated $38.4 million. The addition of $13.6 million in head tax for cruise ship passengers meant the total amount spent by those passengers was about $50.8 million.

The statistics also showed that the increasing number of visitors staying in private homes on the Island stayed for three nights more on average than visitors staying elsewhere ? including in the resort hotel sector.

?This is a growing trend and indicates that there are more people visiting the Island who are staying in non-licensed commercial accommodations, or who are staying with friends and family,? the Department stated.

The majority of visitors remained overwhelmingly from the United States at 209,054. Canada was next in line with 26,491, an increase of 8.2 percent over 2003. Visitors from the United Kingdom totalled 21,431, while visitors from Europe increased by 3.9 percent over 2003 to 4,439.

Visitors from the ?rest of the world? leapt by 23.7 percent to 10,202 in 2004. Two thirds of all travellers to Bermuda in 2004 came for vacation, while 20 percent came for business and those visiting friends and family made up 14 percent.

While numbers in each sector increased in 2004, those percentages remained unchanged from 2003.