The decline in Hawai'i tourism accelerated last month as the total number of visitors arriving by air and cruise ships fell 14.1 percent from July 2007.

Most of the state's visitors arrive by air. And there was a 13.7 percent drop in visitor arrivals by air to 613,550 visitors. That's according to preliminary statistics released today by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

Spending by visitors arriving by air fell 14.9 percent in July to $1 billion compared with the same month a year earlier.

Total visitor days for air and cruise visitors in July fell 12.9 percent compared with the same month last year. The average length of stay by those visitors was 9.42 days, compared with 9.29 days last July.

Among the top four visitor markets, air arrivals from Canada — the smallest but growing market — increased 15.6 percent compared with July 2007.

The other three key markets dropped from the same month last year: U.S. West down 19.3 percent, U.S. East declined 13.8 percent and Japan declined 11.7 percent.