The number of people entering the Yukon by land in the first six months of this year is down a hair from last year, though visitation last month was up.

Statistics provided by Canada Customs to the Yukon's Bureau of Statistics show 144,728 people entered the Yukon from Jan. 1 to June 30 at either of the four border crossings.

The total represents a decrease of 1,553 from the 146,281 in the first six months of 2007, or a decline of 1.1 per cent, Gary Brown, an information officer with the bureau, explained last Tuesday.

Last month, however, the number of border crossings hit 79,017, for an increase of 1,467 over the 77,550 in June 2007.

Of the number crossing into the Yukon last month, 60,465 were U.S. residents, 7,424 were travellers from other foreign countries, 5,186 were Yukoners and 5,940 were from other parts of Canada.

While there's no official record of how many visitors are coming up the Alaska or Stewart Cassiar highways, Brown said the bureau is confident that at some point those visitors are being caputured at the border crossings.

Similarly, he explained, the bureau doesn't record visitors arriving by air, though it's believed they will be recorded at one of the border crossings, at some point.

Brown said when visitors come to the Yukon, it's highly probable they'll visit Haines, Alaska, or Skagway, or go north up the Alaska Highway through Beaver Cross, or across the Top of the World Highway to Tok.

"And we do not want to count them twice," he said.

Brown said July is typically the busiest month for border crossings into the Yukon.

Last July, for instance, there were 103,526 border crossings, accounting for almost a quarter of the 415,188 recorded for all of 2007, statistics show.

Meanwhile, statistics compiled by the Department of Highways and Public works for the Whitehorse International Airport show an upswing in the number of travellers arriving by air.

Last month, their were 11,928 arrivals, compared to 11,528 in June 2007, representing a rise of three per cent, according to the government's statistics.

To the end of June this year, 53,449 passengers have arrived at the Whitehorse airport, almost 2,000 shy of the same period last year. Last year's numbers, however, are bolstered by the record Canada Winter Games months of February and March.

In February 2007, for instance, airport arrivals hit 10,171, compared to 7,396 this past February. In March 2007, there were 10,648, compared to 9,140 last March.