tourism industry to the contrary, the hospitality sector's condition is still extremely fragile.

Air arrivals in October dropped 19 percent and visitor spending from July until September was flat.

Some of the weakness can be attributed to the closure of Marriott's Castle Harbour Resort, but occupancy figures in the major hotels, which were high in the peak summer months, also dropped in October.

That is a bad sign because Bermuda needs to improve arrivals and lengths of stay in the hotels in the ever-lengthening off-season precisely because there are fewer beds to fill now.

What is true is that the Hotel Concessions Act, passed earlier this year, is encouraging hotels to renovate and expand and that in turn will boost the construction industry just as it appears to be cooling.

That will result in more rooms, especially as the former Castle Harbour -- now Tucker's Point -- is completed.

The question now is what will the tourism industry do between now and then.

October's figures are not encouraging and do nothing to suggest that there is any kind of sustained tourism recovery.

Indeed, the only sector that showed any kind of growth at all this year was the cruise industry, where arrivals passed 200,000 this year for the first time ever.

But that is not necessarily good news. Cruise passengers spend considerably less per head than their "regular'' counterparts and may drive air visitors away.

At the same time, Bermuda would literally be sunk without them.

The axiom that there are lies, damned lies and statistics is directly applicable to the tourism industry in Bermuda.

Tourism Minister David Allen spent the summer pointing out that occupancy figures and spending levels were up.

But before declaring that tourism has "hit bottom'' or "turned around'', he would be better off saying that the tourism industry has shown some signs of improvement but remains in critical condition.

Mr. Allen and his Government should not put themselves in the position of the surgeon who declares an operation a success, even though the patient died.

CANADA AND EXTRADITION EDT Canada and extradition The story in yesterday's newspaper about Angelique Crofton, who nearly died as a result of a road accident and has yet to see the man accused of causing the accident go to trial, raises several disturbing questions.

The driver in question, Stephen DeSilva, left the Island to live in Canada after being charged and was not stopped in spite of some clear signs that he was leaving for good.

And the Croftons have now been told that there is no extradition treaty for criminal offences between Bermuda and Canada and therefore nothing can be done.

Bermuda and Canada have long and close ties and it is mind-boggling that nothing can or will be done about it. At the very least, moral pressure should be put on DeSilva through every channel to force him to return to face his accusers.

In the long run, Bermuda should act to put an extradition agreement in place as soon as possible.