Visitor arrivals for May were behind last year, but Government blamed the drop on fewer rooms being available due to Hurricane Fabian damage.

Overall arrivals were down 4.3 percent on May last year at 64,078, and for the year to date numbers are off 3.9 percent at 134,592.

Benchmark air arrivals were down 6.2 percent in May at 31,028, and for the year to date the numbers are behind by 7.6 percent at 85,523.

Cruise passengers were down two percent in May at 31,830 but are ahead for the year to date by 5.2 percent at 44,364.

There was good news on the customer satisfaction side, with 98 percent of visitors saying they were satisfied with their trip and 86 percent saying they would recommend the Island. A further 71 percent said they were likely to return.

In statement before she resigned as Tourism Minister yesterday, Renee Webb said: "It was gratifying to see that the trend continued from previous months with visitors' length of stay, which was up, and therefore visitor spending was up."

In fact length of stay in May was marginally down from 6.1 nights in May, 2003 to 6.0 percent in May, 2004. Visitors staying in commercial properties average length of stay fell further, from 5.3 nights to 4.9 percent while visitors staying in private homes' length of stay rose from 9.5 nights to 9.9 nights.

For the year to date, length of stay remains up at 6.5 nights compared to 6.2 nights.

"We have also seen the percentage of visitors with a higher household income in every age group has increased and I believe our strategy of attracting the higher end visitor is bearing results.

"What is key to remember is that the hotel inventory in May was still down. It is important to note that major properties such as Coco Reef, Wyndham/Sonesta, Elbow Beach and Ariel Sands were either not open or not operating at full strength.

"However, even with less rooms, our hotel properties are selling out. I am optimistic that even though we are still not at full strength the numbers will start reflecting an increase."