In all 548,599 visitors came to Hawai'i last month and spent $748.7 million for a total of more than $3.2 billion in the first four months of the year.

Gov. Linda Lingle’s tourism liaison Marsha Wienert said more than 4,000 jobs have been added to tourism-related industries in Hawai'i in the first four months of the year, in areas such as retail, accommodations and food and beverage services. Hotel room tax collection rose 14.7 percent.

"It’s been a fantastic April, but more importantly it’s been a very good year where tourism is concerned," Wienert said.

The recovery from a difficult stretch for tourism last year shows in the numbers. There was particularly strong 55.4 percent growth in Japanese arrivals last month, along with an 8 percent increase in arrivals from the Mainland Western region and a 5.1 percent increase in arrivals from the Mainland eastern region.

"I think we’ve finally turned a corner" in Japanese tourism, Wienert said. Japanese arrivals make up about 73 percent of international visitors.

The tourist count comparisons to 2003 and 2002 are positive, but total arrivals in April are still shy of the visitor counts in the same month of 2001 and 2000.

"Business has been good and continues to look good," said David Carey, chief executive of Outrigger Enterprises Inc. "The year-over-year probably looks better than it might otherwise because we were facing the downturn from the combination of the Gulf War II and SARS last year. Having said that I’m not going to complain."

O'ahu, which has the largest share of Japanese visitors, had the strongest tourism growth with 19.2 percent growth in visitor arrivals. Kaua'i had a 5.6 percent increase and the Big Island had a 5.5 percent increase in arrivals.

But not every island had tourism growth in April. Maui arrivals were essentially flat with a 0.8 percent decline in arrivals, pulled down by a 9.6 percent drop in international arrivals.

That’s likely due to a decrease in Japanese traveling from Honolulu or the Big island to Maui during their vacations because of limited hotel rooms and difficulties with airline schedules, Wienert said.

One high point in the tourism industry is the wedding market, which enjoyed a 48 percent increase in the number of visitors coming to Hawai'i to get married in April.

A low point is the Canadian market, which makes up about 2 percent of visitor counts. Arrivals from Canada were down 10.6 percent in April.

For the year through April, nearly 2.2 million visitors came to the Islands, up 7.1 percent compared with the year-ago p\eriod. That includes increases in arrivals from the Mainland western region (+7.2 percent), the Mainland eastern region (+8.4 percent) and Japan (+7.9 percent).

"Prospects for the summer are good," Carey said. Although terrorism scares could hurt the travel industry, "right now we’re enjoying solid business."