Figures released by the Department of Tourism yesterday revealed a slide in the number of tourists who visit Bermuda specifically for the Bermuda Music Festival.

A total of 1,155 tourists purchased all-inclusive packages for the festival this year, compared to 1,193 last year.

These packages included airfare, accommodation and festival tickets for the four-day event.

The total number of attendees also showed a dip with 9,069 in 2004 compared to 8,507 this year ? a drop of almost six percent.

But this number did take into account the number of tickets that were refunded due to the cancellation last year.

A Tourism Ministry spokeswoman said last years' reports that 2,500 tourists visited the Island for the festival were inaccurate..

Tourism and Transport Minister, Dr. Ewart Brown was reportedly pleased with the overall numbers of this year's Festival, and with the release of the updated figures yesterday, he still is.

Dr. Brown said he would look to increase overall visitor numbers to the Bermuda Music Festival and will again target 2,000 overseas visitors for the 2006 event.

The drop in the number of overseas visitors for the event came as no surprise to those in the industry as the overall number of international tourists vacationing in Bermuda has declined over the past three years.

According to Government's most recent statistics, 483,622 visitors to the Island were recorded in 2002, while the number dipped to 482,673 in 2003 and dropped again to 477,754 visitors in 2004.

While arrivals during the second quarter of 2005 (April-June) did increase slightly by 5.5 percent compared to the same period in 2004, the amount of money being spent by tourists has not begun to rebound as robustly as the Ministry would like.

The world's foremost provider of credit ratings, Standard & Poor's in New York reported last week that tourism in Bermuda was flagging because cheaper Caribbean destinations were winning out in Costa Rica and the Bahamas.

While an associate professor at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration says that Bermuda's reputation for being formal is working against us and with an increase in family orientated vacations and travel, the Island is not perceived as being family friendly - another point against us.

Chekitan S. Dev says what happened over the last 15 to 20 years is that the other islands have become much more assertive in attracting people while Bermuda remains attractive only to the higher-paying leisure traveller.

"American travel trends have also changed with people looking for more relaxing getaways and Bermuda's reputation for being formal working against it," he said.

Mr. Dev has published over 40 articles in various journals including Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research and the Journal of Travel Research.

Bermuda's tourism peaked in the 1980s with 610,000 visitors arriving by plane, while last year only about a quarter as many did, with an equal number arriving as part of their cruise ship itinerary.