The Island's competitors to the south -- with the exception of Jamaica and St.

Vincent -- are set to record bumper tourism years while Bermuda sputters to a disappointing finish.

The Cayman Islands is gloating about two record tourism years in a row. Air arrivals in the British colony jumped 20.4 percent this year.

Air arrivals in Grenada and St. Martin, meanwhile, were up by more than 17 percent in the third quarter, the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) reported yesterday.

In an interview yesterday, Cayman Islands tourism director Mr. Rudi Selzer pointed to several reasons why tourists were flocking to his country.

Among them were his country's $8 million advertising budget, new marketing strategies, a good working relationship with the private hotel and restaurant sectors and more rigid hotel inspections.

The Cayman Islands' "low crime rate'' and the "stabilising effect'' of being a Crown colony were also reasons for the record tourist numbers, he believed.

And even better results were expected next year with ground being broken this month for a new Marriott hotel on Grand Cayman, he noted.

The only Caribbean islands which saw downturns were St. Vincent -- (-6.6 percent) and crime-plagued Jamaica (-2 percent), according to the CTO.

The Bahamas was also not up to par, recording an increase in air visitors of 4.3 percent. And it was not helped by its cruise passenger arrivals; they have plummeted 13 percent to date, nevertheless, they still stand at 1.4 million.

Barbados saw a tourism increase of 11.1 percent and St. Lucia, 12.8 percent.

"Most countries have recorded increases for the year so far,'' a Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) spokeswoman said yesterday.

"I'd say it's a carry over from a joint $15 million marketing programme started early last year.

"The US market has improved and business out of Europe is showing strong growth over the last couple of years. We seem to be getting more charters from over there.'' Rising crime in the Bahamas and Jamaica could have affected tourism in those islands, she said. "Crime is everywhere, it's not a major thing in those islands but I think it could be having an affect.'' Bermuda outpaced by Caribbean neighbours From Page 1 ships from the busy Bahamian port of Nassau.

Bermuda is not a CTO member. But the spokeswoman said, "I have heard there are also problems with drugs and crime in Bermuda.'' Mr. Selzer said he could only recall one violent incident against a tourist in the Cayman's in the last two years ago. Other crimes against tourists were of a "petty'' nature, he said.

Mr. Selzer said if he could single out one contributing factor to the upturn in tourism, it was the "redesigning of hotel and holiday condominium inspections''.

"Overall, we have become a little more stricter in our inspections which has improved the quality of the product,'' he said. "By doing this we have created a feeling of getting value for money.'' He said there were several other reasons for the increase in tourism: "We have changed our marketing and promotional techniques and this is beginning to pay-off.

"We have a very close relationship with the private sector. We work together with them on promotion and advertising ideas.

"We have also done a major prism analyses enabling us to identify our markets based on the fact roughly 40 percent of our tourism is repeat business.

Finding out where they live will enable us to identify surrounding clusters with people with similar interests.'' Mr. Selzer said the CTO's joint promotional campaign "certainly has brought a lot of attention to the region'' -- as did the blockbuster movie the Firm.

He said the British colonial status of the Cayman's was a political issue, however, "Advertising the destination as a British Crown Colony certainly has its benefits especially in a world of turmoil, terrorism and all that. The fact we are a British colony has a stabilising effect.'' There was currently no talk of severing ties with Great Britain and it was "very doubtful' the issue of independence would come up in the next elections, he said, which are in 1996.

More than 237,000 people flew to the Cayman's in the first eight months of the year.

The island is the fifth largest banking centre in the world with total deposits of $415 billion, the Cayman's financial secretary Mr. George McCarthy said on Tuesday. This allowed a record-setting $220 million budget proposal for 1995.

Air arrivals in Bermuda are 4.3 percent ahead of last year with 558,196 people visiting the Island from January to November.

Once on track to record significant gains over 1993, the local tourism industry apparently has run out of steam with the year's air arrivals expected to finish about one percent ahead of 1993.

This is a far cry from the Tourism Minister's boast last February of a ten percent improvement in air arrivals in 1994. They were a promising 23 percent ahead in the first quarter.

Tourism officials said this week they had not analysed the "disappointing year''.

But they believe 1994 was turned into a no-gainer by a summer business boom in Europe followed by a massive American Airlines/hotel sale in the Caribbean from September to November 19.

"We came up against a lot of competition,'' Tourism Board chairman Mr. Kirk Cooper said. "That's what it basically boiled down to. I don't think we expected it like that.''