Bermuda's air arrivals are set to be the lowest in the 21 years, according to figures released yesterday.

On year to date statistics, air arrival numbers are already 6.31 percent down on 1999 -- the lowest figures recorded in two decades.

Up until July this year, air arrivals stood at 200,355, 13,499 below the same point in 1999.

Overall air arrivals have fallen in every month this year and the number of bed nights sold to those vacationers also dropped in every month bar January.

Although there are still another five months of figures to be reported, the industry has an apparently uphill battle in making up the thousands of extra visitors needed to approach last year's results.

And Tourism Minister David Allen's hopes that numbers would at least "bottom out'' this year and even increase by as much as 2.5 percent now seem way off target.

Hotels have recorded good occupancies this summer, and at some points available beds were in short supply, but their gain is likely to be at the expense of the loss of 800 beds when the Marriott Castle Harbour hotel closed last year.

And overall expenditure of both cruise and air visitors fell on the first six months of the year, compared to last year.

The disappointing picture came as the Department of Tourism released its visitor arrival statistics for July.

Total air arrivals stood at 38,306 for the month, down 7.35 percent on the same period last year. Cruise passengers were up by 10.47 percent to 35,645 for July.

Overall, cruise and air passengers were up by 0.41 percent to 74,131. The year to date total of visitors stands at 315,184, down 2.81 percent on 1999.

Bed nights purchased in hotels by those air visitors was 260,833 in July, down 5.79 percent on last year. And on the year to date, it was down 7.07 percent to 1,207,909 bed nights.

Of Bermuda's air markets, core US business was down 8.12 percent to 31,678 in July, leaving the year to date down 8.35 percent to 156,607 passengers.

Canada increased by 5.77 percent to 2,182, boosting year-to-date numbers by 1.22 percent to 18,297.

UK fell by 10.88 percent to 2,736, with a year so far of 16,693, up 2.99 percent.

Europe dropped 20 percent to 698 for the month and the "rest of the world'' increased by 17 percent to 1,012 people.

According to a statement released with the statistics, hotel properties had a combined occupancy of nearly 83 percent, up on last year and the highest July occupancy for 13 years.

Of the bed nights sold, small hotels, cottage colonies, housekeeping cottages and units with 12 beds or less all saw an increase in sales. They rose by 7.71 percent (to 25,726), 5.14 percent (21,699), 6.32 percent (13,869) and 13.56 percent (1,800), respectively.

Large hotels share of the nights dropped by 12.36 percent to 100,409, with a year-to-date total of 474,381, down 19 percent. There were also falls for private clubs and guest houses during July.

Of the main US markets, the mid-Atlantic, north east and mid-west all fell in terms of air visitors, whereas the south east and west increased.

Mid-Atlantic fell by 13.21 percent to 16,365 for the month, down 8.67 percent on the year. North east dropped by 14.01 percent to 5,059, year to date down 14.47 percent.

The south east increased by 9.7 percent to 6,120, continuing a year to date increase of 2.42 percent.