season with visitor air arrivals up for the first time in months.

Air arrivals were up three percent in the week September 11 to September 17 with 9,390 visitors pouring off locally bound flights -- 272 more than the same week last year.

The mini boom in air arrivals was just enough to offset a 3.6 percent downturn in cruise passengers putting total arrivals up 0.8 percent.

But the year overall is still down some six percent with air arrivals down by eight percent for the year to date. Cruise ship arrivals are down one percent for the year.

Cruise ship occupancy dipped in the second week of September with occupancy ranging from 95 percent on Horizon and 75 percent on visiting cruise ship Fedor Dosteovsky .