stay by visitors at the Island's hotels and guest cottages.

For all licensed guest properties, it dropped from 8.8 nights to 6.3 nights, a decrease of about two and a half nights, according to February Tourism statistics.

Tourism Minister the Hon. C.V. (Jim) Woolridge said that steps were being taken by the Ministry to encourage visitors to stay on the Island longer.

The Ministry's attention had been focussed on getting more visitors to vacation in Bermuda in general -- for long or short periods.

But now that increases in tourism have been recorded, which Mr. Woolridge believes are largely due to the Ministry's advertising campaigns and the 68-degree-temperature-guarantee campaign, staff are turning their attention to other aspects of Bermuda's advertising.

"We now have to work on extending the average length of stay,'' Mr. Woolridge said.

He said it was currently the trend to go on shorter but more frequent vacations. And with airlines putting back flights that were cut due to the economic downturn, visitors had more flexibility in their travel plans.

The Bermuda Hotel Association's separate results were not as bad. It reported the average stay for its member properties dropped from 4.8 nights to 4.3 nights -- about one night. Nevertheless, it was still concerned with the drop.

Overall, Tourism officials were pleased with the February results, calling them "encouraging'' A "healthy increase'' was recorded over the same period last year, Mr.

Woolridge said.

Visitor arrivals in February were up 10.9 percent to 14,841.

Year-to-date arrivals also recorded an increase: air arrivals were up by 3.5 percent to 23,172. There were no cruise ship visits.

Arrivals were up from all the Island's major markets except the United Kingdom.

The number of February visitors from the United States was up by 12.7 percent to 10,484. Canadian arrivals were up by 14 percent to 2,898 and European arrivals were up by 84.2 percent to 269.

However, the number of British visitors coming to Bermuda was down by a significant 12.6 percent to 269. Tourism officials have blamed the drop on British Airways' flight cutbacks.

Statistics further showed arrivals grew from all five US regions, with mid-west arrivals increasing the most -- though the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions continued to produce most of the Island's visitors.