lowest for around 20 years.

Air arrivals stood at 374,474, a 10,221 drop -- or 2.7 percent -- on last year.

Cruise visitors, however, are understood to have gone up slightly to 131,005.

The overall figures for the year are unofficial preliminary estimates by The Royal Gazette .

Official statistics are likely to be published within the next month.

Meanwhile, latest weekly air arrival figures from Government show a 71.1 percent improvement on last year.

The number of holidaymakers flying to Bermuda between December 27 and last Sunday, January 3, went up by 1,366 to 3,287.

Over the four weeks leading up to Sunday the increase on last year was more modest -- 1.4 percent, or an extra 180 visitors.

And between April 1 last year and Sunday there was a 0.3 percent decrease, with 327,449 visitors. This was a drop of 863.