With Hurricane Igor about to hit the Island and the airport expected to close this afternoon, large numbers of guests at the Island's hotels have gone home early.

Regional director of sales and marketing Shelley Meszoly of the Fairmont Southampton said a "significant" number of guests had heeded the latest advice.

She said: "We have been encouraging guests to leave early or not arrive if they don't need to be here and a lot have taken us up."

The Fairmont Hamilton Princess had been expecting approximately 60 percent occupancy for today and 50 percent for tomorrow prior to the arrival of Igor, according to sales and marketing director Rehanna Palumbo.

"We are now expecting to be around 40 percent on both days as we have proactively advised our guests to reschedule their plans," she said.

"We have our hurricane procedure plan in place and we have implemented our safety and security plans. Our management team is continually monitoring the progress of Igor and making the necessary changes accordingly."

Marchal Ming at room reservations for The Reefs said the hotel has been "lenient and understanding" in asking guests to reschedule.

"Just a few have not rescheduled," she added. "A lot of guests had concerns about leaving and getting back to their families because they don't want to be stuck here for three or four days. Everyone's very calm. We've been updating them as well as employees. We've got everything under control and we're not penalising people."

J.P. Martens, general manager of the Grotto Bay Beach Resort, said roughly half the hotel's reservations had been cancelled and there had been numerous departures for what had been forecast to be a quite busy weekend. Mr. Martens said that remaining guests were being kept informed, with a safe room readied for particularly severe weather.

Not all the news was bad, a Tucker's Point employee reported that a few last minute arrivals were prepared to ride out the storm.

And at the Newstead Belmont Hills, front office manager Kamila Bean said emergency generators were in place, guests had been provided with flashlights, and notices were being distributed to keep everyone informed. There had only been three early departures as of yesterday, which she attributed in part to the hotel's location. "We are fortunate over here to be very sheltered," she said.

Management at The St. George's Club said they had around 100 guests, and were expecting more to arrive today.

A spokesperson said: "A lot of them are getting ready for a party. I noticed quite a few going to the store and buying alcohol.

"When Fabian hit, we never lost power, water or cable, so we wound up having quite a few locals check in afterward."

Event cancellations predominated throughout yesterday.

The Ministry of Culture and Social Rehabilitation and the Mirrors Programme postponed training events scheduled for this weekend as well as the Professional Development Training scheduled for Monday through Wednesday. New dates will be released as they become available. Today's Completion Ceremony has also been put off until next Saturday.

Chewstick has been cancelled for tonight, along with its Movie Night Series.

Capital G bank will close today at 12 noon and remain closed on Monday.

The KeyTech Group, M3 Wireless and Logic Communications announced that their retail stores would operate on Saturday from 9 a.m. until 12 noon to assist customers with sales and service related issues. Logic said that its customer service desk will continue operating through the storm.