Bermuda’s winter air arrivals this year increased for the first time since 2008.Tourism Minister Patrice Minors announced yesterday that air arrivals from January to March were up seven percent compared to last year the worst on record.The figures were announced at a press conference at Cambridge Beaches yesterday afternoon. Mrs Minors said: “The number of air arrivals in the first quarter totalled 30,824, representing an increase of nearly seven percent from 28,865 visitors in the first quarter [last year].“Canada continued to be the best performer with 6,469 arrivals up an amazing 50 percent over the same period a year ago. Canada’s share of business increased to 21 percent for the period, up from 15 percent.“This is directly due to the increased WestJet service as well as heightened marketing effort of the tourism team in the past year.”January saw an increase of 5.5 percent compared to last year, while February increased by 2.7 percent. Meanwhile March rose by 9.9 percent compared to the same period last year.Mrs Minors said: “We believe that all the collaborative effort, our very focused marketing efforts, very creative packages by the hotels and a significant increase in the group and incentive business are prime factors that have caused this upsurge.“So we continue to be very positive that the tourism industry can improve if we all collectively work to this goal.”Mrs Minors added there was good news ahead with the summer season. At the ten largest hotels on the Island April’s bookings are projected to be 20 percent above last year.Last year hotel occupancy was 54 percent in April.Hotels also have ten percent more rooms booked in May and June compared to the same time last year.Hoteliers said visitors waited until the last minute to book their flights over the last two years May and June saw 74 percent and 79 percent hotel occupancy rates last year.Cambridge Beaches CEO Mike Winfield, who hosted the quarterly bulletin of statistics, said he believes the Department of Tourism is returning to its niche market.He said: “I think to an extent through other years and administrations we lost our way in what we were about and what we were doing and the kind of customers that can afford to come to Bermuda and who wants to come to Bermuda.”He added that the news that Rosewood Hotels would be doing a marketing blitz about the Island after formalising their partnership with Tucker’s Point earlier in the week was positive.“Anything that brings attention and references Bermuda is a good thing and great for the Island,” he said. “They said they are going to go out and talk about Bermuda, and any information and references to Bermuda being the destination of choice will help us.”