Ten thousand fewer visitors flew to the Island over the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 1996.

The drop continues a decline as February's figures marked the last time an increase was seen in total arrivals.

The news came in June's visitor statistics which were issued by the Tourism Department on Wednesday.

They show 42,083 people flew to Bermuda during the month, taking the total for the year-to-date to 178,671.

Both figures are down in comparison to June, 1996, when 48,240 visitors flew here and the total for the first six months was 189,023.

Last night Tourism Minister David Dodwell said: "I am obviously extremely disappointed considering all the effort that has been put in this year but there are a number of things to be conscious of.

"Number one is that there is so much competition out there. Individual US states are working hard to keep Americans at home and they are being successful at it,'' he said. "If you ask any hotelier they will tell you how incredibly competitive tourism is today. To simply do as well as you have done before is not good enough. You have to surpass the customer's expectations today simply to hold onto business.'' Mr. Dodwell said this was his major concern with the latest figures.

Airport surveys of departing visitors in Spring, 1997 showed 61 percent of Bermuda's visitors felt that "overall, Bermuda was a place you really got your money's worth''.

Mr. Dodwell said: "This is the lowest level ever. Thirty nine percent of the people who stayed here did not feel they got their value for money.

"This figure disturbed me the most. It has gone down over the last six or seven years and I believe it is one of the major reasons that we are struggling today.

"What this comes down to is that we are not doing as good a job as we should be in satisfying a very demanding customer -- and appropriately so -- today.

Editorial: Page 4 Visitor arrivals decline "We can always do a better job marketing. We do a good job marketing. But if you market something and people come and are not satisfied, then all that marketing is to no avail.

"I don't want to be defensive about the challenges the Ministry faces but I think we do a pretty good job in the marketplace that we operate in today.

"We can always do better and we are trying hard to do better but the re-engineering of Bermuda tourism is a national effort. Every one of us is responsible for it.'' Cruise visitor arrivals figures climbed more than five percent for the year-to-date with 30,317 people coming to the Island in June, taking the year's total up to 71,424.

The increase was not enough to stop the total number of visitors from falling two and a half percent to 250,397 for the first half of the year when compared to the same time in 1996.

June figures for air visitors in relation to country of origin show that US arrivals -- except from the south-eastern states -- were down as were those from Canada, Japan and Australia. Only the U.K. and Europe showed increases.

And June bednights -- a key consideration in estimating visitor spending -- were down 14 percent with 250,519 registered in comparison to 291,092 for June, 1996.

Accommodation figures show that 3.9 percent fewer visitors stayed in large hotels while small hotels and cottage colonies registered increases of 11.1 and one percent respectively.