Out-of-state visitors spent an average $181 per person, per day on Maui in the first three months of this year, up from $172 a year ago, according to figures released today by the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

Daily spending by out-of-state visitors on the Big Island was $143 per person, up from $138 a year earlier. Spending in Moloka'i was $77 per person, up from $74.

The only Neighbor Island to experience a decline in spending by out-of-state visitors was Kaua'i, where tourists used $144 per person, per day, down from $148 in the first quarter 2002.

The average per-person, per-day spending for the entire state was $165.2, up from $161.6 a year ago.

Lanai numbers were not included because the sample size was too small, the agency said.

Data collected are from out-of-state visitors who arrived on each neighbor island by air and do not include those who toured the islands by cruise ships.

DBEDT Director Theodore Liu cautioned that this is a new survey and drawing conclusions may be premature. "Because this is only the second year of the neighbor island visitor survey, we are only able to make preliminary year-to-year comparisons of first quarter results for Maui, Molokai and the Big Island," Liu said in a statement.

The survey confirmed a trend among visitors of going directly to Neighbor Islands without stopping in O'ahu. In Maui, for example, only 17 percent of the out-of-state visitors had also been to O'ahu, down from 35.5 percent in the first quarter of 2002.

More of the out-of-state visitors surveyed (75.2 percent) stayed exclusively on Maui compared to those who visited this island (53.0 percent) in first quarter 2002.