December proved another slim month for visitor arrivals, which contributed to a drop of 10.8 percent in the overall number of tourists who arrived in Hawaii by air and cruise ship last year, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

It's the first time since 2004 that the number of visitors to the state dropped below 7 million.

The number of visitors arriving by air, the vast majority of arrivals, fell 10.6 percent. That's the biggest percentage drop since the state started tracking those statistics in 1927. But the number of visitors by air actually has dropped back to a level seen in 2004.

The amount of money those visitors spent for 2008 was down also; expenditures for visitors who arrived by air totaled $11.3 billion, down 9.9 percent or $1.2 billion.

For the month of December 2008, total air visitor expenditures dropped 22.4 percent or $280 million, from the same month last year, to $967.7 million. The decline was caused by a 17.1 percent decrease in arrivals by air to 550,529 visitors and lower average daily visitor spending ($170 per person, down from $185 per person in December 2007).

Total visitor days for air and cruise visitors in December 2008 fell 14.9 percent from the same month last year. Total arrivals for air and cruise visitors declined 16.5 percent from December 2007.

However, the average length of stay by these visitors was slightly longer at 10.35 days, compared with 10.16 days last December.

Among the top four visitor markets, air arrivals from the U.S. West dropped 21.9 percent while U.S. East arrivals were down 15.3 percent compared with December 2007. Japanese arrivals fell 15.5 percent while arrivals by air from Canada declined 11.6 percent from last December.

Total arrivals by air and cruise decreased 10.8 percent from the same period last year to 6,806,622 visitors.

The 2008 arrivals by air totaled 6,699,424 visitors, 10.6 percent lower compared with last year. The average daily spending was $180, compared with $182 per person for 2007.