The number of visitors traveling to Hawai'i last year was little changed from the previous year's record, and local tourism officials said they expect to see only modest growth in 2007.

Visitor arrivals totaled 7.4 million last year, which was virtually unchanged from the record visitor traffic in 2005, the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism said Friday.

Unlike 2004 and 2005, when arrivals rose sharply, state officials are forecasting arrivals to grow between 1 percent and 2 percent this year.

Despite the slowdown in growth of arrivals, visitors continued to spend at a record pace. DEBDT said visitor spending last year rose 2.9 percent to a record $12 billion.

"We're optimistic about 2007," said state tourism liaison Marsha Wienert. "But will we see the same kind of growth that we saw in the last few years? Probably not."

DBEDT's slow-growth forecast is largely based on the sluggish Japan market. According to DBEDT's report, the Japanese visitor count dropped 9.4 percent in 2006 to 1.4 million.

However, travel from the Mainland is expected to remain strong. Last year, visitor arrivals from the West Coast and other U.S. destinations rose 2.6 percent to a record 5.5 million.

In its year-end report, DBEDT noted that arrivals on O'ahu decreased 2.7 percent in 2006 to 4.6 million travelers while the number of arrivals on Maui increased 4.8 percent to 2.4 million. Kaua'i's 2006 tourist count was up 8.4 percent to 1.2 million while the number of tourists traveling to the Big Island increased 4.5 percent to 1.6 million.

While overall Japanese arrivals are down, the Big Island is continuing to grow in popularity among Japanese tourists, said Hajime "Jim" Ueno, chief editor of Aloha Street, a quarterly magazine marketed toward Japanese visitors. Japanese travelers have an appreciation for many of the Big Island's natural features, such as the volcanoes and Mauna Kea, Ueno said.

For the month of December, arrivals were up 1 percent statewide to 662,380 while visitor expenditures for the month were flat at $1.1 billion.

Keith Vierra, senior vice president and director of Hawai'i operations for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, said bookings industrywide have been a little soft for the first quarter.

Vierra said he's concerned that the soft bookings will prompt hotel operators to cut prices, which in turn would lower their revenues.

Although revenues at local hotel and resort properties are up, labor and energy costs also have been rising and could lower the bottom line for local hotel and tourism companies, he said.

"I think people are seeing softening in the first quarter but that softening compares to previous first quarters which were very strong," added Murray Towill, president of the Hawaii Hotel Association, which represents 170 hotel and resort properties statewide.

Reach Rick Daysog at rdaysog@honoluluadvertiser.com.