Visitor arrivals and spending continued its strong upward trend in Hawaii according to preliminary stats published by the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
It recorded a near 5% increase in arrivals in May to 751,191 and spending was up 9%.
That amounted to $1.3 billion, the HTA said.
"The month of May, historically an off-peak travel period, maintained the strong pace of Hawaii’s tourism industry that no one predicted at the start of the year," said George D. Szigeti, CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
"Tourism’s economic impact was spread across the state, with double-digit increases in visitor spending reported for Maui, Kauai and the island of Hawaii."
The increase came despite slightly less air capacity, which was down 0.7%.
Seat capacity fell from Asia excluding Japan although just last week Hawaii welcomed its newest carrier budget airline AirAsia with its maiden flight to Honolulu.
Overall, arrivals are up 4% in Hawaii for the first five months of 2017 and spending is at nearly 10% at $6.9 billion.
