THERE was a slight fall in the number of people travelling to and from the island, according to government statistics.
Total scheduled departures fell from 636,072 in 2011 to 630,098 in 2012, a fall of just under 1 per cent.
Broken down, the number of passengers leaving the island on scheduled flights fell by 0.7 per cent over the previous year, while the figure for sea passengers was down 1.2 per cent.
Visitor numbers were virtually unchanged. An estimated 294,471 trips were made to the island in 2012, compared with 294,484 in 2011.
The number of residents travelling off the island dropped from 341,588 to 335,627 over the same period.
Of the 294,471 trips made by visitors in 2012, 106,381 (36 per cent) were leisure visitors staying in paid accommodation. Forty per cent (116,424) were visiting and staying with friends of family and 65,562 (22 per cent) were travelling for work or business reasons.
The economic affairs division of the Treasury will release more information about its survey towards the end of the month or at the start of April.