Fewer tourists visited Hawai'i last month, but visitor spending still grew slightly.

Visitor arrivals totaled 632,932, down 4.6 percent from March last year, according to preliminary data released yesterday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Visitor days fell 5.1 percent. Still, total visitor expenditures of $974.4 million were up a scant 0.4 percent.

Last month was the wettest March in 55 years, with heavy rains dampening sales for many outdoor-activity businesses. But tourism officials attributed the decline in visitors not to the weather but to a late Easter.

"Since the Easter holiday fell in April this year versus March last year, it is very difficult to compare March 2006 to March 2005," said state tourism liaison Marsha Wienert. "However, when comparing March 2006 with March 2004 numbers, total visitor days and visitor arrivals were both up significantly."

Visitor arrivals last month are up nearly 9 percent compared to March 2004.

Duke Ah Moo, staff vice president of Hawai'i operations for Pleasant Holidays, also said the decrease year over year is attributed to the Easter holiday — a "high-demand travel period" for Mainlanders — falling in April. He said the rain didn't affect business.

"If anything at all, it would be negligible," he said. He said there were "hardly any" rain-related cancellations, and that the weather problems also didn't affect business in April.

"We've really seen consistent booking pattern and an increase because of the Easter holiday," he said. "I don't think it's as big of a deal as people are making it out to be. There's a lot of questions, but it's not having the kind of impact on cancellations as you would think."

Visitor arrivals fell in three of four major markets year-over-year. U.S. West and U.S. East visitors dropped 7.8 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively.

Japanese arrivals last month continued to decline but at a slower clip than previous months, with the number of visitors falling 2.8 percent. Canadian visitor arrivals grew 4.4 percent.

But overall daily spending per person grew to $170 from $161, and per person per trip spending grew 5.2 percent to $1,539.50.

Despite the tragic Kaloko Reservoir dam break last month that temporarily affected Kaua'i's north shore, the Garden Island saw a 4 percent increase in visitors. Lana'i had a 5.5 percent increase in visitors, but other islands saw a decline. Moloka'i saw the largest percentage drop (6 percent), followed by O'ahu (5.5 percent), the Big Island (1.5 percent) and Maui (1.4 percent).

Total arrivals for the first quarter — 1,802,097 — fell 0.5 percent from the same period last year, despite record Mainland arrivals. Japanese arrivals so far this year through March were down 7.5 percent. First quarter total visitor expenditures were up 5.2 percent.

"We are encouraged that first-quarter arrivals set a new record for the domestic market and total visitor days exceeded all previous years," Wienert said. "Furthermore, we are excited by the strong growth in visitor arrivals from Canada and by the continued increase in the level of overall expenditures."

Of the total number of tourists who visited Hawai'i in the first quarter, 102,423 either flew here to board Hawai'i-based cruise ships or arrived on foreign cruise ships, up 52.8 percent from the same period last year.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.