The average visitor to Bermuda splashes out on restaurant meals and leisure activities to plough more than $1,000 per trip into our economy.Tourism Minister Patrice Minors has revealed the latest on-island expenditure trends saying they are just the start of attempts to turn around the Island’s tourism industry.Ms Minors told the House of Assembly she was excited with the results of this year’s First Quarter Exit Survey Flash Report, which show the average visitor now tops the $1,000 expenditure mark per trip. This is an increase of about $200 compared to last year.The latest statistics also show that the total visitor expenditure totals about $36 million, up from about $27.5 million for the same period last year.The per person on-island expenditure range from January to March was from $1,135 to $1,270. This is up from a range of $913 to $1,026 for the same period last year.This means the overall visitor expenditure for the first quarter of 2011 is estimated to have jumped to a range of between $34.8 million and $38.9 million. Last year’s first quarter expenditures ranged from $26.3 million to $29.6 million.Ms Minors said in her ministerial statement on Friday: “The increased personal spending is most evident for accommodations, meals and beverages in restaurants, recreational and leisure activities, and other shopping purchases.“I can assure you that we consider these positive trends as only the beginning in our quest to turn around this all important tourism industry.”Ms Minors said the “most notable” per person increase in spending for the first quarter period was for recreation and leisure activities and meals and beverages. For recreation and leisure activities, spending was up by 54 percent from $38 to $60 per person and for meals and beverages in restaurants, spending was up by 23 percent from $255 to $313 per person.Ms Minors also touched on air visitor arrivals from January to March increasing by almost seven percent the first positive trend in winter business in four years. She said each successive month had recorded gains with March experiencing a ten percent increase in arrivals.She said preliminary results for April indicated air arrivals were up by 14.9 percent up 12 percent from the US, up 28 percent from Canada and the UK up 14 percent.Ms Minors said the majority of Bermuda’s hotels were reporting “positive advanced bookings for the summer period” indicating that bookings were up 20 percent until August compared to last year.Ms Minors said: “I am pleased to report this positive trend continues and some of this must be attributed to the very aggressive marketing efforts that the Department of Tourism has been carrying out over the past several months with key advertising and marketing initiatives.”UBP MP Patricia Gordon-Pamplin asked for “hard numbers rather than percentage increases” and Ms Minors said she would get the figures to her.In response to an additional question by Ms Gordon-Pamplin, Ms Minors confirmed the figures were due to an increase in expenditure rather than inflation increases.The latest tourism figures come as two airlines reiterated their commitment to the Bermuda market.West Jet spokesman Robert Palmer confirmed the Bermuda to Toronto route was to remain at three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. It originally started as a daily service but was reduced to three times a week about six months ago.WestJet has publicly been credited with making Canada a top performer in air arrivals from January to March there were 6,469 arrivals from Canada, up 50 percent from last year.Mr Palmer said: “A decision was made last fall to move from daily service to three times per week to more closely match supply with demand.“Unfortunately, there was insufficient demand in both directions to justify continuing daily service.“WestJet remains committed to Bermuda and it is our hope that both Canadians and Bermudians will take advantage of the service.”Meanwhile JetBlue said its daily services to Boston and New York’s JFK both remained “popular routes.” An average of about 70 percent of seats are taken on those two routes.JetBlue spokeswoman Allison Steinberg said: “JetBlue is very committed to the Bermuda market. Like all airlines, we’re constantly working to best match supply and demand.”