Total visitor arrivals last month grew 6.5 percent to 562,243, beating the November record set in 1999. Visitor expenditures totaled $891.9 million, up 8.5 percent over the same month last year.

"We are thrilled by the continued resurgence of our visitor industry," said state Tourism Liaision Marsha Wienert. She cited a 11.4 percent increase in visitors here for their honeymoon and the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans 2005 convention, which brought 7,144 delegates here.

Japanese arrivals fell for the second month in a row, dipping 2.4 percent over November last year. But record growth in the Mainland market and increases in the number of Canadian visitors offset the decline.

Visitors' average length of stay fell slightly by 1.5 percent but growth in arrivals drove up visitor days by 4.9 percent. Daily spending per person grew 3.5 percent to $183, and spending per trip rose 1.9 percent to $1,586.

Of the 562,243 visitors last month, 22,669 flew here to board Hawai'i-based cruise ships, a 41.5 percent increase. An additional 9,235 visitors came to Hawai'i on out-of-state cruise ships.

Wholesale gas cap to drop 2 cents next week

Hawai'i's wholesale gasoline price cap will drop 2 cents a gallon on Monday, according to figures released yesterday by the state Public Utility Commission.

From Jan. 2 through Jan. 8 the maximum wholesale price for regular on O'ahu will be $2.46 a gallon, including taxes. That's down from about $2.48 a gallon this week. That excludes any dealer mark-up. Under the price cap law that took effect in September dealers can charge whatever prices they want.

Biotech conference set for Jan. 11-13

The Biotechnology Industry Organization, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, and the state of Hawai'i will host a Japanese Bio Mission at the Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy in Honolulu Jan. 11-13.

BIO is sponsoring the conference in conjunction with the state of Hawaii, the University of Hawai'i, the Hawai'i Life Sciences Council, Enterprise Honolulu, and the Oceanic Institute.

"The purpose of the conference is to highlight the emerging field of industrial biotechnology, which is being used to convert agricultural wastes to renewable energy and to make many types of manufacturing processes more environmentally sustainable," said Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO's Industrial & Environmental Section.