major markets showed declines.

The US, Canada, Britain and continental Europe all registered declines, with US visitors accounting for more than half the loss of 1,700 airline passengers in April.

The only bright spark came from the Mid-Atlantic region, where a five percent increase was realised. The Northeast, Bermuda's main market, saw a three percent decline while all other areas of the US registered falls in the double digits.

A much brighter picture emerged among cruise ship passenger figures where a 14 percent increase was realised compared with April, 1998.

A 90 percent increase of American visitors was seen in the near 14,700 cruise ship passengers that visited the Island during the month.

But air arrivals from Canada continued to fall for the seventh consecutive month, with April arrivals dropping nine percent.

For the second time this year a fall in air arrivals from the United Kingdom was seen. A drop of three percent was realised.

After more than doubling during the month of March, European air arrivals fell a whopping 16 percent in April. While the figure is disappointing, the UK and Europe remain the only two markets showing cumulative increases over last year, up nearly three percent and 16 percent, respectively.

Year to date figures show total arrivals slightly up on 1998 at 0.62 percent, with 101,950 tourists deciding on a Bermuda vacation. Just over 86 thousand of them came by air, while 15,600 opted for the cruise ship experience.

Bednights, a key indicator of visitor spending, also fell seven percent during the month, with Canada and Europe registering the largest declines of nearly 18 percent and 24 percent, respectively.

Guest houses were the only tourist accommodation sector which did not experience declines during the month. The large hotels realised an eight percent decline while cottage colonies witnessed a drop of 18 percent.