month after they had enjoyed a minor increase.

But air arrivals from the UK enjoyed their ninth successive increase, and their fourth consecutive double-figure increase.

The news came in the July edition of Bermuda in Perspective, a monthly bulletin from the Department of Tourism containing visitor statistics.

Year-to-date air arrivals were down 2.09 percent to 216,830, cruise arrivals were down 2.99 percent to 101,819 and the grand total of visitors was down 2.36 percent to 319,079.

Total air arrivals in July slipped to 42,540 from 42,777, a drop of 0.55 percent.

And US arrivals, which improved last month, fell from 36,181 in July, 1997, to 35,848 last month, a 0.92 percent drop.

In June, total air arrivals were up nearly 3.5 percent over the same month during the previous year. The figures for the month were buoyed by an increase in US and UK air arrivals for the month.

The Tourism report also indicated that the average length of stay for visitors staying in commercial accommodations for the month of July fell to 5.4 nights from 5.49 nights in 1997.

The year-to-date average length of stay was 5.33 compared to the year-to-date total of 5.26 nights for last years.

The average length of stay for the month was down 0.2 percent to 6.7 nights while bed nights for the month -- a key indicator of visitor spending -- were down 3.49 percent to 283,350. For the year-to-date, bednights are down 0.66 percent to 975,878 from 982,337.

The UK is the only one market showing constant increases.

Air arrivals from the UK (2,880) were up 20.1 percent over the figure recorded in July, 1997 (2,398). The boom pulled UK air arrivals for the year up to 16,020 from 13,453 for the same period last year -- an increase of 19.08.

UK air arrivals have increased consecutively for the past nine months with the last four months registering increases of over 20 percent.

July arrivals drop Elsewhere, air arrivals from Canada for July were up three percent to 2,195 from 2,131 in July, 1997.

Looking at the US by region, the North East and the Mid-West enjoyed monthly increases over July, 1997, of 2.11 and 15.8 percent respectively while the Mid-Atlantic fell 1.66 percent and the South East fell 9.04 percent.

Small hotels enjoyed a boost in the number of guests during July of some 7.27 percent over the number reached during the same month in 1997. The figure climbed from 4,497 to 4,824.

Private clubs also experienced a minor boost from 641 to 787 for the same period. All other categories -- from large hotels to properties with 12 beds or less -- experienced declines.

This was reflected in the total for all the categories which was down 0.6 percent to 34,646 from 34,889.

Visitor arrival figures for July and the year-to-date are overshadowed by those recorded in 1980 -- the best year ever for air arrivals. In July of that year, 51,807 people flew to the Island taking the year-to-date total to 285,792.

The best arrivals figure for July came in 1987 with 57,303 people. The year-to-date total of air arrivals by July that year was 279,324.