By Henry Adderley Positive visitor statistics for last month were not enough to push tourism figures for the first eleven months of the year into the black.

Overall arrivals were down less than two percent with year-to-date air arrivals down by more than two percent over the same period last year and cruise visitor arrivals up 0.9 percent on the total number in 1996 to 181,885.

The news came in the November issue of Bermuda in Perspective -- an analysis of monthly visitor statistics issued by the Bermuda Department of Tourism.

But the 26,712 air arrivals in November, 1997, were up 7.21 percent over the 24,915 people who flew to the Island in November of last year.

The break down of year-to-date air arrivals shows that the US and Europe were down by 4.2 and three percent respectively.

Arrivals from Canada, the UK and the rest of the world were up by 0.8, 5.1 and 6.5 percent respectively over the same period.

A breakdown of the US by region shows that November, 1997, air arrivals from northeastern and southeastern states were down from November, 1996, arrivals.

However the 8,854 people who flew to Bermuda from the mid-Atlantic states last month were 3.66 percent more than the 8,541 who arrived from that region in November, 1996.

Year-to-date arrivals figures from all three regions were down.

But the Mid-West and western states recorded November, 1997, arrival increases of 28.18 and 13.58 percent each over the same month last year and had year-to date increases of 2.60 and 6.16 percent.

Canada had a positive showing last month with 3,837 arrivals. This figure was up by 28.24 percent from the 2,992 who visited in the same month in 1996. UK air arrival figures for the month were up 23.15 percent for November, 1997, (2,032), over the same month last year, (1,650). Year-to-date arrivals were up from 21,680 in the first 11 months of 1996 to 22,781 in 1997.

But Europe's 452 air arrivals last month were down more than 13 percent from the 524 people who visited the Island last November. And year-to date figures slipped from 7,186 in 1996 to 6,969 this year. Bednights for November, 1997, were up 8.4 percent to 149,190 over the November, 1996, figure of 137,675.

However the 2,154,728 bednights recorded over the first eleven months of 1997 are down by 3.5 percent from the 2,232,438 bednights recorded over the same period last year. Bednights are a key indicator of visitor spending.

And an examination of air visitors by accommodation shows that November, 1997, figures for large are small hotels, private clubs and housekeeping cottages were up by 10.5, 4.5, 18.7 and 8.7 percent respectively over figures for November 1996.

Meanwhile cottage colonies and guests houses suffered drops of 6.8 and 20.3 percent each during the same period.

Year-to-date figures for air visitors by accommodation in 1997 show that large hotels were the only group to record a positive increase over the first eleven months of 1996 and that was by 0.1 percent. All the other groups recorded decreases ranging from 24 percent in the case of guest houses to 1.2 percent in the case of cottage colonies.

Also yesterday, Bermuda Hotel Association president Dennis Tucker reported that the final occupancy for hotels and cottage colonies during the month of November hit -- 10.2 points ahead of the level obtained in November, 1996, and 4.3 points ahead of the 1995 level. Mr. Tucker also reported that occupancy projections for this month stood at 27.7 percent, already three points above the figure reached last December which was 24.7 percent.

Projections for January and February stand at 21.2 and 19.9 percent respectively. January's projection, based on bookings as of December 1, are already up on the last two years' figures. February's projection is less than two points below the past two years' figures.