The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism said 507,680 tourists arrived in Hawai'i in May, down 3.8 percent from 527,944 during the same month a year ago. Their average length of stay, however, rose 4.4 percent to 8.41 days from 6.78 days in the same year-earlier period.

In one bright spot, arrivals from Japan ­ the largest and most important segment of Hawaii's eastbound tourism market ­ was down 8.3 percent during May from the same month a year ago. That was an improvement from a decline of 20 percent in March and nearly 30 percent in January. Overall, international arrivals are down 12.9 percent from a year ago.

"This is certainly an encouraging trend, and overall, we view this month's data as good news," said Seiji Naya, department director. "The Japanese visitor count is a clear trend toward recovery."

Tourism, which is the state's No. 1 industry in terms of economic output, is still recovering from the aftershock of the Sept. 11 attacks when visitors arrivals were nearly cut in half.

All the islands except for Lana'i and Moloka'i, which were up 33.8 and 13.5 percent respectively, reported lower arrivals during May. O'ahu visitors stayed the longest at 7.33 days, followed by Maui at 6.83 days the Big Island at 6.52 days, Kaua'i at 6.04 days, Lana'i at 3.23 days and Moloka'i at 3.1 days. O'ahu was the only island to report an increase in the average length of stay.

Preliminary spending figures for April showed visitor spending was $708.4 million, down 13.8 percent, compared to the same period last year. State officials said the drop was primarily due to a 14.5 percent in total visitor days in April.

For the year to date, visitor arrivals are down 10.4 percent and total visitors days have declined 8.3 percent. Through April, visitor spending was off 5.9 percent at $3.3 billion.