Tourism bosses have welcomed an increase in visitor arrivals for the third quarter of 2015.

Bermuda Tourism Authority (BTA) CEO Bill Hanbury described the 5.6 per cent rise in cruise, yacht and air visitors between July and September compared with the same period in 2014 as “positive news”.

But Mr Hanbury admitted his team was not satisfied with the pace of the progress, and insisted major investments in Bermudian entrepreneurs to improve “product and experience” as well as the millions ploughed into a state-of-the-art website and new rebranding architecture would pay dividends in the long term.

He revealed that the BTA would be handing out a further $800,000 in grants next week as part of its drive to improve and increase activity options for visitors.

“The numbers are tracking in the right direction, but we are not satisfied,” said Mr Hanbury.

“We are not happy with the pace of progress, it has been frustrating. But we believe we have done the right thing in thinking about the long term solution rather than looking for a quick fix.”

Between July and September vacation air arrivals saw a small increase of 0.31 per cent compared to last year, but for the first nine months of the year leisure air arrivals are down 0.80 per cent on 2014.

The latest BTA statistics show that airlift capacity to Bermuda has dropped by eight per cent or 34,000 seats in the first three quarters of the year. However the first quarter of 2016 is forecast to see a 14 per cent year-over-year increase in airlift capacity.

Mr Hanbury said: “In the last 18 months we have spent a great deal of money on building from the bottom up and establishing a solid foundation in the long term interests of Bermuda’s economy.

“This has involved a gigantic investment of $1.7 million in improving our product and experience because that was what our consumers told us we had to do.

“That money has been used to fund Bermudian entrepreneurs in tourism to improve visitor’s experiences in Bermuda and the information we are receiving is that people are feeling better about the product.”

Mr Hanbury also revealed that the authority’s new website as well as fresh “rebranding architecture” was expected to go live at the beginning of 2016.

He said: “In April the decision was taken to fund our next generation website as well as rebranding architecture. That has cost millions but we feel will make a difference in the long term.

“What we had before was not up to standard and was not allowing us to compete.

“We hope the new website, which will be at the cutting edge of digital marketing, and new brand architecture will be up and running by the beginning of 2016

“Again this was a strategic decision to take funding out of sorely needed advertising efforts to rebuild the foundational assets.

“I believe the numbers we have got so far would have been better if we had just thrown the money at advertising, but that would not have fixed the inherent problems.”