the same month last year.

And cruise arrival figures continued their strong showing with 163,682 year-to-date arrivals marking a 5.1 percent increase over the same period in 1996.

The news comes in the latest batch of monthly visitor statistics from the Tourism Department.

However the statistics also show year-to-date figures for the grand total of visitors and air arrivals were down by 1.8 percent to 461,958 and 5.1 percent to 163,382 respectively.

Overall, 33,905 people flew to the Island in September, up 2.09 percent from the 33,212 who flew in September, 1996. Some 27,154 of these came from the US where the Tourism Department targets its marketing effort.

This indicates a 0.27 percent drop in comparison to September, 1996, when 27,227 people flew to Bermuda from the US.

Meanwhile arrivals for the month from Canada climbed a whopping 41.26 percent with 2,838 people flying to the Island this September in comparison to 2,009 in September, 1996.

Figures for arrivals from the rest of the world were also up over last September but arrivals from Europe, the UK, Japan and Australia were down.

Other statistics released by the department show that bed nights, a key indicator of visitor spending, were up by 1.7 percent to 186,466 for the month while the average length of stay dropped slightly.

Visitors in commercial accommodations stayed an average of 4.86 nights in September in comparison to 4.89 nights during the same month last year.

The year-to-date average length of stay was 5.21 nights compared to the year-to-date total of 5.23 nights for last year.

In a breakdown of bed nights by accommodation, each group showed drops in year-to-date-figures.

In comparison to September, 1996, large hotels, private clubs and facilities with 12 beds or less were up by seven percent, 39.7 percent and 30.4 percent respectively in September of this year.