2012 First Quarter: Visitor Arrivals Up 9%
Total visitor arrivals to Bermuda for the first quarter of 2012 increased nearly 9% compared to the same quarter in 2011, according to statistics released by Government today [June 3].
A total of 34,571 visited the island in the first three months of the year, up from 31,779 visitors. Air arrivals for the first quarter totaled 31,619, representing an increase of 2.6% from the 30,824 visitors in the first quarter of 2011.
The report said, “While the United States remains the islands strongest market at 63%, visitation from the Canadian region continues to increase its market share representing 23% of all visitor arrivals to the island during this period and increase of two percentage points over the previous year.
“This rise in market share represents an increase of almost 13% in visitors from the Canadian region. Visitors from the Rest of the World also showed an increase moving up 7% compared to 2011, while the United States market remained constant and UK and Europe showed declines of 4% and 10%.
“The first quarter is traditionally not an active period for the cruise visitor as the island usually receives a few smaller ships in the month of March, however, an additional two ships during this period led to a 303% increase in cruise arrivals with a total of 2,719 visitors cruising to the island during this period. Yacht arrivals saw 204 yachtsmen sail to the island for the first quarter, down 17% compared to the same quarter in 2011.”
The full 13-page report is below [PDF here] click ‘Fullscreen’ for greater clarity:
Seriously? The government releases statistics on a Sunday?
…so with no real change in air arrivals it would seem that perhaps one cruise ship came earlier to add its load to the first quarter arrivals.
Also, very nicely misleading graphs to make a tiny difference look huge. How about doing that same graph again starting at zero?
Just shows you the former ubp leader and his staff are working hard. Good job Minister Furbert.
No actually, it shows arrivals being up because the Government of Bermuda has been flying all over the place, every dam weekend.
So in saying that, can we have a statistical chart of the Governments travels over this quarter also?
I will just bet you that that their travels increased 9%
the all important business travel numbers declined. and school age kids return to the island for a break ….and one cruise in the first quarter of 2011 and 2 in the first quarter of 2012? I fully expect Minister Furbert to break out in song any moment now while trumpeting these truly amazing numbers…..
How much are the visitors spending? That’s the bottom line.
Thank Goodness – good start to 2012. Now if the BIU could only see the damage they are doing with their “random acts of strikeness”!
….and without the early arrival of one cruise ship for a 302% increase in cruise arrivals during this particular period heavily skewing the numbers, what would the increase or decrease have been?
I think more like two tenths of one percent increase.
But, I’ll give credit where credit is due. An increase, even a miniscule one, is an increase. But the numbers as presented are more than a bit dishonest.
Now what about bed nights, a FAR more important number. If you search hard you’ll find, buried in the middle of the report, that “…unfortunately these visitors spent a little less time on the island”
Politicians…slippery lot.
If the stats were as good as they appear, they would have been released today with a full blown press conference. Instead they were quietly released on a Sunday. Enough said.
The graph is funny, looks like quite a difference until you really look at it. Who are they trying to fool?
Furbs and the Cog continue to insult our intellegence us by expecting us to believe the rubbish they put out.
Perhaps they believe these dream-numbers themselves…??
The blatant visual misrepresentation of the y-axis for both the overall & 1st quarter air arrival graphs approaches fraud and confirms how low the PLP will stoop to cobble together anything positive, which, given their abysmal and well documented track record, must take a herculean effort.
If only they would make a similar attempt at rolling out PATI, attending PAC meetings or, most importantly, fixing the DoE.
PLP – Betraying Bermudians since 1998.
As I’ve stated before, half a loaf is better than no loaf at all. However as I also stated, keep it straight and don’t insult my intelligence.
Great work with the Bar-Chart illustration by the way.
NOT!!!
Wow, according to that bar chart air arrivals are about 4x what they were last year.
At least, that’s what we would think if we were the dumb@sses they’d like to think we are.
PLP. Insulting our intelligence every day.
The bottom line is that the numbers are up. Isn’t that better than the numbers being down??