A decrease in group business visitors and switching the Jazz Festival to September led to a whopping 19 percent drop in October's visitor arrival statistics.

But cruise ship arrivals reached an all time high of 207,881 this year -- the first time cruise ship visitor figures had breached the 200,000 threshold.

Government attributes the 19 percent drop compared to October 1999 in overall figures to an "exceptional'' rate in group business last year and the announcement of major renovations to the Fairmont Southampton Princess and "uncertainty'' over the fate of the Sonesta Beach Hotel as having steered away group bookings.

And the Tourism Ministry also warned that until the Island's bed inventory increases through the completion of hotel development projects "within the next two or three years'', the total number of air arrivals "will remain flat''.

With the reduction in hotel rooms in recent years -- 1,000 rooms were lost in 1999 alone -- hotel occupancy has jumped to a ten-year high.

But with occupancies high, the market is still going to be hampered by the level at which air arrivals can grow and Ministry officials report that it is "imperative that the Island realise a greater yield from its limited number of air visitors, by stimulating visitor expenditure''.

Air arrivals from the US in October declined 23 percent with just over 21,000 visitors compared to nearly 27,500 last year.

And following four months of relatively "sizeable'' growth in the Canadian market, October saw a 19 percent drop, the first for that country's monthly stats in 2000.

Meanwhile cruise ship arrivals increased again, despite eight fewer calls this October.

In all, 28,865 people came to Bermuda in October compared to last year. That 28 percent increase took the number of cruise ship passengers to the new record.

This year 207,881 people have come via cruise ship, a 6.47 percent increase over last year.

The number of cruise ship passengers exceeded the number of airline passengers by 840, meaning there were 28,865 water visitors compared to 28,625 air visitors.

October saw 57,704 visitors in all, a .05 percent decrease compared to October 1999 and by the end of the month 502,148 people had come here, a decrease of 2.06 percent.

The all important bednights statistics -- or the length of stay barometer -- showed declines for North America and drove down the stats for all air visitors.

The 21,051 air visitors from the US stayed for 96,519 bednights, a 23.84 percent drop since the same month last year.

Their average stay in Bermuda was 4.6 nights per person, a .03 percent drop compared to last year.

Spending drops: Business, Page 13 Tourism And the 2,783 Canadian visitors stayed 19,134 bednights, a 19.47 percent drop.

Total air visitors -- 28,625 people -- stayed 152,471 bednights which is an average of 5.3 nights.

By the end of October the number of people who had visited Bermuda had a 7.31 percent drop from last year.

Combination visits by ship/air visitors -- presumed to be part of Government's Cruise/Stay/Fly programme -- was up 37.18 percent to 214 visitors.

The 1,124 people who visited Bermuda in this manner is a decrease of 8.62 percent compared to last year.