Increased cruise arrivals helped buoy overall tourism arrival figures for the third quarter, which saw a 12 percent increase in tourists coming to the Island compared to the same period last year.

Overall, air arrivals were down 5.5 percent, with almost 80,000 visitors flying to Bermuda between July and September, down from 84,000 in 2008. However air arrivals did increase in September, by one percent — previously, industry leaders predicted the air arrivals figures would be lower.

The Premier credited an aggressive marketing campaign and partnering with hotels to offer incentives to visit as the reason Bermuda did not see a sharper decline in air arrivals during the current recession.

“The good news is that Bermuda continues to hold its own in this very difficult environment when compared to our most immediate competition — the Caribbean,” he said at a press conference this afternoon.

“Just under 60,000 guests stayed in all hotels during this third quarter, a very small decline of one percent over last year. On the other hand, there were dramatic increases in the accommodation categories of small hotels and cottage colonies. They experienced increases of almost 40 percent and just over 30 percent respectively.”

Dr. Brown added that focusing on tourists from cities across the American North East was also paying off.

In September there was a 40 percent increase in visitors on JetBlue flights from Boston and a 28 percent increase from New York. During the course of the three months visitors from New York and Boston increased two percent and five percent respectively.

“As we approach the end of the year, the Bermuda Tourism team is currently assessing our 2009 activities and formulating a marketing strategy for 2010,” he said.

“This Government will continue to give solid, strategic support to achieving the goal of increasing the numbers of visitors to Bermuda. I am proud of the way that Bermuda Tourism’s team has tackled our serious challenges and I want to take this opportunity to thank them publicly. We will never be on the side of spreading doom but, at the same time, we will be realistic about what we are capable of stretching ourselves to achieve.”

* Read tomorrow’s Royal Gazette for full coverage.