CLEARWATER - Pinellas County tourism showed signs of improvement in June, a consultant's preliminary report shows.

But the most recent numbers, released Wednesday, show a 3.9 percent decline to 355,900 overnight visitors in May compared with a year ago.

"Early indications are June could be a relatively good month, improving on trend lines," said Walter Klages, president of Research Data Services of Tampa.

The flow of European visitors to Pinellas declined 8.2 percent in May - compared with a year ago - to 61,215.

However, the British Airways nonstop flight between Tampa International Airport and London is doing well, and flight loads for November and December are up 8 percent and 7 percent, respectively, said Venessa Alexander, Pinellas County's United Kingdom tourism representative.

That bucks an expected downturn that British tour operators foresee for winter 2009 travel.

In addition, a pattern has re-emerged, with more European visitors planning two-destination holidays in Florida, adding a trip to the Pinellas beaches, local officials said.

Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater is enhancing its 18 billboards in Tampa and Orlando by adding a "skirt" at the bottom that shows the local Web address more clearly than the small print that blends into the landscape scenes on the main board.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817.