With little fanfare, Hawai'i's No. 1 industry passed a milestone this month as the 7 millionth visitor of 2005 stepped off a plane.

Never before has the state hosted so many tourists in a year, and by the end of this week, the count will exceed last year's record by about 450,000.

Hotels, airlines, restaurants, shops and tour operators are buzzing with Mainland travelers seeking a safe, yet exotic, destination in a time of war.

"Everyone's tired, but they're happy," said Deborah Hall, office manager at Haleakala Bike Co. Her Maui tour company bought 50 new bikes, hired two new guides, an office worker and a part-time mechanic this year.

"It's good for everyone — it's good for families, it's good for all of us," Hall said. "It's going to be busy this next year, too, just going by what's happening lately."

The state probably passed the 7 million mark around Dec. 12, according to Eugene Tian, research and statistics officer for the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. As of Tuesday, an estimated 7.3 million tourists had visited the state, and by Saturday the number should rise to about 7.4 million. That tops the previous record of 6.99 million visitors set last year.

State economists have forecast 7.66 million visitors in 2006.

"This year, we are celebrating because we consider ourselves to have been very, very fortunate," said Barry Wallace, executive vice president of hospitality services for Outrigger Enterprises Inc.

"For all of us, I think it's been a record year, the best of perhaps the last 10 or more. And it's been interesting that each and every month of the year, including December, has been pacing considerably ahead of the prior year, which was also a good year. So we count ourselves as pretty lucky and feel that we're benefiting from a good recovery."

The record numbers have also stretched the state's resources.

"The roads are just choked with cars," said Ronnie Grover, general manager at Kauai Sea Tours, which runs snorkel and whale watching tours. "I think residents and visitors alike would be a lot happier if we had a little more infrastructure and better traffic conditions."

Grover also noted that although revenue is up, so are expenses like fuel costs.

Also yesterday, the state released November visitor arrivals numbers that showed an increase of 6.5 percent over November 2004. The state said 562,243 people arrived in November, beating the November record set in 1999. Visitor expenditures totaled $891.9 million, up 8.5 percent over the same month last year.

"We are thrilled by the continued resurgence of our visitor industry," said state Tourism Liaision Marsha Wienert in a news release. She cited an 11.4 percent increase in visitors here for their honeymoon and the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans' 2005 convention, which brought 7,144 delegates.

Japanese arrivals fell 2.4 percent over November last year. But record growth in the Mainland market and increases in Canadian visitors offset the decline.

Visitors' average length of stay fell slightly by 1.5 percent, but growth in arrivals drove up visitor days by 4.9 percent. Daily spending per person grew 3.5 percent to $183, and spending per trip rose 1.9 percent to $1,586.

Of the 562,243 visitors last month, 22,669 flew here to board Hawai'i-based cruise ships, a 41.5 percent increase. Another 9,235 visitors came to Hawai'i on out-of-state cruise ships.

Most islands saw double-digit increases in visitor arrivals: