Visitor arrival figures are up for the first ten months of the year -- but down for the month of October.

The news came yesterday in the Tourism Department's analysis of monthly visitor statistics.

Total air visitors to the end of October were up 1.9 percent over last year at 349,546 while total cruise visitors were up 7.2 percent at 180,226.

The Island is showing growth in this area as the final figures for cruise ship arrivals last year stood at 169,037 and the year before at 172,865.

The result of these increases was a 3.9 percent rise in the total number of visitors or an increase of 60,580 to 530,817 for the year to the end of October.

However the picture for the month of October shows a decrease of 5.07 percent in air visitors as numbers dropped from 37,866 to 35,948 while cruise ship visitors stood at 24,459 for the month.

The total number of air arrivals from the US dropped from 29,861 to 28,089 or 5.93 percent despite increased arrivals from the Mid-Atlantic and North East states, areas targeted in the Department of Tourism's Let Yourself Go advertising campaign.

And Canadian visitor numbers were down 17.21 percent from 3,602 to 2,982.

But European arrivals were up 2.50 percent from 881 to 903 and U.K. arrivals rose from 2,453 to 2,870 or 17 percent.

indicator of visitor spending -- were down 4.8 percent to 196,251 for the month of October with a visitor's average stay standing at 5.5 nights -- the same as October, 1995.

In commercial properties the average stay was 4.89 nights while for those staying in private homes it was 8.85 nights.

For the year to date, bednights are down by 1.9 percent from 2.13 million last year to 2.09 million through October 31, 1996.

The Tourism Department also noted that its Airport exit surveys taken between July and September showed that visitors who stayed in cottage colonies spent an average of $1,606 while those in hotels spent an average of $1,335.

Further information shows the average spending of a visitor during the third quarter decreased $59 from $1,412 in the past year to $1,353.