percent, tourism figures released yesterday by Government show.

But the increase came about due to a shift in the scheduling of calls by the vessel Norwegian Crown .

This saw calls traditionally allocated to September reallocated to November and December which are not traditionally part of the cruise season.

Bermuda in Perspective statistics for November, 1998, also indicate that the total number of cruise visitors between January and November -- likely to be the final figures for the year -- were up nearly three percent over 1997.

During November, 5,522 visitors cruised to the Island, taking the total for the year to date to 187,296 with the vast majority -- 176,420 -- of those visitors coming from the United States.

The increase continues the growth trend the world's cruise ship industry has seen in recent years.

December, 1997's Bermuda in Perspective report showed that cruise arrivals for the Island increased that year by 0.9 percent to 181,885 people and similar increases were experienced in the years leading up to then.