Despite low May hotel occupancy figures, Tourism Minister David Dodwell predicted that the trend for overall hotel occupancy was on the upswing.

But neither Mr. Dodwell nor Bermuda Hotel Association (BHA) Executive Vice President John Harvey were able to produce figures on the actual numbers of rooms available versus the number of visitors to the Island for the month of May. Both stated that the other should have the statistics.

The numbers rather than the percentages are important for evaluating the overall trend in tourism as compared to previous year's statistics.

BHA president Dennis Tucker recently reported on the overall occupancy for the month of May and projections for the next three months.

"Hotel and cottage colonies combined achieved a final occupancy of 75 percent for the month of May which is 4.3 points behind the level attained in May 1997 and 2.7 points behind 1996,'' he said.

Occupancy in June, 1997 stood at 71.4 percent while in June, 1996, it hit 74.5 percent.

Looking ahead, BHA figures show July figures to be up at 55.7 percent compared to 53.6 percent last year and 49.7 percent in July, 1996.

Projections for August are up at 38.7 percent against last year's August occupancy of 37.3 percent.

But figures are still not up on projections at this time in 1996 which stood at 39.4 percent.

According to a statistical review published by the Department of Tourism for the years 1980 through 1989, the occupancy for May, 1980 -- which was the best year for arrivals -- was 94.8 percent.

The May, 1980 occupancy levels were based on the total number of visitors that month of 74,171.

The total number of visitors to Bermuda during 1980 stood at 609,556. The Board of Tourism's Review stated occupancy levels bounced around for the decade following the 1980 tourism boom.

Despite low May numbers for this year, Mr. Dodwell said he considered the summer projections "terrific news''.

It is understood that the closure of the Elbow Beach Hotel may have contributed to the low May numbers.

Mr. Dodwell said he was slightly disappointed about the May figures, but he predicted that June may be a bumper month.

He also mentioned that he was happy with the projections, and suspected June figures would be even higher than the 81.2 percent predicted.

"We're trying to reverse a long-term decline and although we're not out of the woods yet, I think we can be cautiously optimistic.

"It's the kind of boost or confidence lift the Island needs. We need some successes, and this is the sort of success we can build on,'' he added.