The number of visitors traveling to Hawai'i continued to slide last month, but those who came spent more money, the state reported yesterday.

Visitor arrivals fell 2.1 percent in February from the same month a year earlier, led by a 5.3 percent drop in Japanese visitors. Still, daily spending rose to $181 per person from $172 per person during the same period, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

At Out of the West Honolulu, a country-western store at Aloha Tower Marketplace, sales in recent months have tracked that trend.

Owner Roy Vallejos said his best customers for Tony Lama boots and Western gear are Japanese visitors and members of the military. While he hasn't seen large numbers of Japanese tourists, he notes that those who do come know what they like.

"They come to Hawai'i to shop," he said. "They're great customers."

Vallejos, who is retired from the Navy, moved back to Hawai'i and bought the 11-year-old store three years ago.

He said Japanese visitors do spend more, pointing to two women trying on Western-style belts while a couple wearing brightly colored matching aloha prints admired the hats and boots.

Vallejos watches what sells and caters to those repeat customers: "We've probably expanded belts by 400 percent in the past year." Vallejos also said he's changing his blue-jeans buying to suit his customers' tastes, stocking up on more Levi's and fewer Wranglers.

He acknowledges some help bringing in the visitors from his two black-and-tan dogs: Lola and Ava, both chihuahua/terriers, draw customers into the store whether they are just padding around the second-floor store or doing tricks for treats.

SHIPPING IN

On the marketplace's first floor, The Hawaiian Ukulele Co. gets a mix of business but relies more on Mainland and European visitors.

Mamiko Nelson, who owns the store with her husband, said sales have been steady in recent months with a mix of visitors and local folks buying 'ukulele that range in price from $10 to $1,000.

The visitor numbers did reflect some good news from cruise ship business with a 24.8 percent growth in visitors arriving by ship and/or flying here to get on a ship.

Nelson said many cruise ship visitors from the Mainland often plan ahead before buying 'ukulele when they visit and know what they want. "The ship is a very good business for us," she said. "They know the value of the koa wood."

Vallejos has better luck with the European cruise ship passengers. "Germans are absolutely great country shoppers, the French, the English," he said.

Visitors from three of the top four visitor markets continued to decrease: Those from the U.S. East were down the most at 9.9 percent; followed by Japan and Canada, both down 5.3 percent from the same month last year.

The bright spot was visitors from the U.S. West, up 6.1 percent.

'MODERATE GROWTH'

After years of boom, industry officials note the change in trend.

"We expect the visitor industry to remain strong for the year, but with more moderate growth compared to the record performance of the past couple of years," said state tourism liaison Marsha Wienert.

Daniel Naho'opi'i, chief of tourism research for DBEDT, said the rise in spending for Japanese and Canadian visitors appeared mostly in a 20 percent rise in what they paid for hotels.

But in the U.S. market, the nearly 10 percent increase in spending went to entertainment and recreation, he said.

In the first two months of this year, visitors from the U.S. East spent the most per trip, $2,053, followed by Canada at $2,001 per person, U.S. West at $1,558 each, and Japan $1,574 each.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.