Visitors are spending less nights in Bermuda hotels this year than last, the latest tourism figures show.

In a worrying development ? which comes at the same time as the number of air arrivals is falling ? the average length of stay is getting shorter.

For the year to date at the end of September last year, the average stay was 5.4 nights, but for the same period this year, it dropped to five nights.

And the number of bednights fell from 977,775 for the same period last year to 837,417 for the year to date in September this year.

While Hurricane Fabian predictably damaged arrival figures for this September, for the year to date, the island is marginally ahead of 2002 due to a surge in the number of cruise passengers.

But 2002 was a recovery after the September 11, 2001 attacks wiped out the 2001 tourist season. For the year to date at the end of September, overall arrivals were up 1.9 percent on 2002 at 409,606.

But in the benchmark area of air arrivals, numbers are down 7.1 at 213,300 for the year to date at the end of September this year.

Tourism spending among air passengers was between $1,150 to $1,200 this year, with business travellers continuing to be a lucrative source of cash.

Although they are here for 3.8 nights on average compared to 5.9 for tourists, they spend $412 compared to $187 for leisure visitors