Visitor arrivals for the first quarter of 2004 are down five per cent on last year but hotels are now chock-a-block for this month's Newport/Bermuda race.

And the Tourism Department said bed nights in the first quarter were above the 2003 figure.

Air arrivals for the first three months of 2004, lagged slightly behind the same months of last year, recording 2,625 fewer passengers, but those who came stayed a total of 246,652 nights for the period as compared to 243,844 last year.

This resulted in an average intended stay of 7.03 nights in the first quarter of 2004, an increase over the 6.46 nights in the same months of 2003.

And now beds are filling up at a fast rate.

One HSBC employee told The Royal Gazette said he had enormous difficulties finding hotel beds for six clients during the Newport Race Week which begins on June 18.

“I managed to scrape around and get them beds but it was difficult but we eventually managed to do it. They are split up. I wanted to have them together.

“It isn't good for the island to have such a difficulty finding lodging.”

He eventually found spaces at Mid Ocean, Surfside and the Hamilton Princess. Tourism Minister Renee Webb said: “It's good news for the island if it gets sold out.”

She said it meant tourism was going up instead of down.

Bermuda Hotel Association Chief Executive Officer John Harvey said: “I don't know the exact picture but the Newport/Bermuda time is historically always very busy, it's always been a challenge to secure beds.”

He said the beds wiped out by Fabian had made it worse. “Sonesta has not got all its inventory. If they had those beds they would be snapped up I am sure.”

Sonesta had been due to reopen yesterday with 100 rooms coming on line rising to 249 by the end of the month however the opening date has now been put back to June 16.

The Bermuda Hotel Association say there are 2,600 rooms on the Island right now plus another 160 or so from establishments not in the BHA.

The exit survey results for the first quarter of 2004 also showed that the 35,068 air visitors contributed between $28.4 million and $41.6 million to the island's economy during that period.

These visitors continued to cite personal safety, seclusion, relaxation and the hospitality of Bermuda's people as the most important factors for choosing Bermuda as their vacation destination.

The island also out performed last year's first quarter results when it came to future travel and recommendations to others.

When asked “what was the likelihood that they would return to Bermuda in the near future”, 75 percent of the respondents answered “definitely”, which compared to 64 percent from the same period of 2003, according to a Tourism department news release.

It said one of Bermuda's biggest selling points is word of mouth, and the figure for recommending Bermuda to others was even more positive in the first quarter of 2004 than the same months last year, with 88 percent of all of those surveyed saying that they would definitely recommend Bermuda to their friends and relatives. This result was up on the 76 percent from the first quarter of 2003.

Bermuda also met or exceeded the expectations of value compared with cost of 93 percent of the air travellers in the first quarter of 2004. The same could be said when these visitors compared Bermuda to other Caribbean island destinations.

In this instance, 78 percent of the respondents said that they considered Bermuda to better than our neighbours to the south. This all bodes well for the island as it continues to deliver on the expectations of the visitors that chose to come here.

The figures for cruise arrivals were up considerably for the first three months of 2004, but this must be tempered by the fact that there was only one small ship that visited the island in the beginning of 2003, while Bermuda welcomed two callers during the period this year, said the release.

It said the figures from the first three months of 2004 went much as expected.

With the complete closure of two of the major hotel properties and partial closures in various other establishments, available beds were at a premium, and many of the other properties that were open for business were full.

Demand out weighed supply for much of the first quarter, and thus the total number of visitors for the period was impacted, said the statement.

Going forward in the second quarter it is expected numbers will increase as more and more hotel units come back on line.