Hawai'i's tourism slump continued last month with the sixth consecutive double-digit decline in visitor arrivals.

The number of visitors arriving in Hawai'i by airplane and cruise ship fell to 496,877 in November, a 15.9 percent decrease from the same month a year earlier, according to figures released today by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

Visitor spending by those who arrived by air dropped 15.3 percent to $805.3 million. Average daily visitor spending fell to $180 per person in November from $186 per person a year earlier.

Total visitor days for air and cruise visitors fell 12.5 percent from the same month last year. However the average length of stay by those visitors was slightly longer at 9.23 days, compared with 8.87 days last November.

Among the top four visitor markets, air arrivals from the U.S. West dropped 18 percent while U.S. East arrivals were down 14.4 percent compared with November 2007. Japanese arrivals fell 20.3 percent while arrivals by air from Canada declined 7.1 percent from last November.