Island.

The February monthly tourism bulletin, released yesterday, showed air arrivals from the US dropped nearly six percent compared to last year while the number of visitors from Canada dropped seven percent.

Overall arivals in February totalled 15,181 with 10,433 people coming from the US, 2,633 from Canada, and 2,115 people from the rest of the world.

February 1999's figures represent a 5.93 percent drop from the 16,138 visitors in 1998.

Overall numbers for the first two months of the year show an 8.56 percent drop from 28,204 people in 1998 to 25,790.

This was a 5.93 percent reduction in arrivals compared to 1998. The number of arrivals for January and February dropped 8.56 percent with 25,790 coming in 1999.

Arrivals from the US totalled 10,433 people in February compared to 11,054 people in February 1998.

Year to date figures from the US have also dropped from 19,360 last year to 17,901.

Arrivals from the UK dropped 5.71 percent from 1,610 in 1998 to 1,518.

January's figures bouyed the year to date figures compared to last year when 2,578 people visited from the UK.

And although airlines serving the Island offered more than 33,600 seats on their various flights, only 23,305 were filled. This 69 percent load factor was a one percent drop from 1998.

The overall number of bed nights in February dropped by nearly seven percent with UK visitors' total bednights dropping some ten percent compared to last year.

The only major improvement in the figures was in the number of visitors from the southeast region of the US, who made a 7.58 percent increase in visits from 1,755 in 1998 to 1,888 this year.