The latest tourism statistics for July showed a modest increase in the number of Japanese visitors coming to Hawai'i, providing a bit of good news amid an overall decline in arrivals for the month.

Total arrivals last month fell 2.5 percent to 709,702 visitors from the same month a year earlier, according to preliminary statistics released yesterday by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Total visitor days slipped 3 percent from a year earlier.

But the number of visitors from Japan rose 2.1 percent in July from a year earlier, the first monthly increase since December 2005. The increase wasn't enough to offset declines in arrivals from other top markets: U.S. West (down 2.9 percent), U.S. East (down 7.4 percent) and Canada (down 0.2 percent).

In another bit of good news, DBEDT reported that visitor spending for July rose 0.6 percent to $1.2 billion compared to the same month last year.

"We are pleased that Japanese arrivals increased for the first time in over a year and a half, as did overall visitor expenditures," said state tourism liaison Marsha Wienert. "We are also encouraged with the continued increase in visitors coming to Hawai'i to honeymoon and get married," she said.

Over the first seven months of the year, Wienert noted, visitor spending rose 0.2 percent over the same period last year. And she said average daily visitor spending for the first seven months of 2007 increased 2.8 percent to $178 per person.

Also for the first seven months of 2007, total visitor days declined 2.6 percent compared to year-to-date 2006, while total arrivals dipped by 1.7 percent. Among the top four visitor markets, visitors increased from the U.S West (1.5 percent) and Canada (1.1 percent), but arrivals declined from Japan (down 4.2 percent) and the U.S. East (down 3.9 percent) compared to the first seven months of 2006.

Others statistical highlights included: