Hawaii's tourism industry experienced a decline in both visitor arrivals and spending in May, the state reported today.

The number of visitors arriving by both air and cruise ship last month fell 7.4 percent to 554,399 visitors, according according to a report from the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

Spending by those who came by air — vast the majority of visitors — fell to $887.8 million, a 2.9 percent decline from May 2007.

Arrivals by air fell 6.4 percent to 549,017 visitors. Daily spending by those visitors was $185 per person, compared to $179 per person in May 2007 but that increase wasn't enough to make up for the decline in arrivals.

Visitor spending for the first five months of the year rose 3.2 percent to $4.94 billion compared with the same period a year earlier.

Visitors spent less time in the Islands in May. Total visitor days for air and cruise visitors in May 2008 decreased 6.9 percent compared to May 2007.

Among the top four visitor markets, arrivals fell 12.7 percent from the U.S. West, 7.7 percent from the U.S. East and 6.2 percent from Japan. Arrivals from Canada rose13.7 percent.

"May statistics are better than anticipated especially since it is the first month to report the effects of the loss of two home-ported cruise ships and increased airfares," said state tourism liaison Marsha Wienert.

But she expressed hope that increased marketing efforts "in our base market, U.S. West, will help stimulate demand for summer travel. "