"There was more spending per person," Agrusa said. "I attribute that mainly to the dollar being so weak and the yen being at one of its highest spends in years."

The report was based on 1,643 surveys (1,051 in Japanese, 592 in English) collected from marathon participants.

In comparison, visitors who came specifically for the 2008 NFL Pro Bowl accounted for $28.07 million in spending and generated $2.5 million in state taxes.

Agrusa calculated the economic impact using the Read Formula, which is used by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism to measure events such as the Pro Bowl.

The report was funded by a grant from the Honolulu Marathon Association.

The field of participants for the 2007 marathon included 17,056 runners from Japan, 2,089 from the U.S. Mainland and 792 from countries other than the U.S. and Japan. In addition, there were 3,842 race-day walkers (3,334 from Japan).

As the study notes, Japanese visitors are highly coveted because of their spending habits, which include purchasing "omiyage" (small gifts for friends and family back home) and "kinen" (souvenirs to mark their travels). The report also notes that such spending may have been because 42 percent of last year's participants were running their first marathon.

Roughly 30 percent of Japanese runners said they were visiting Hawai'i for the first time; 90 percent said they would return to visit Hawai'i again for reasons other than to run the marathon.

"At a time when visitor numbers for sporting events are dropping, and when more people are leaving Japan but not coming to Hawai'i, the numbers for the marathon have stayed steady," Agrusa said. "I think this is a great thing for tourism."

The average length of stay for Japanese runners was 5.27 days, spending an estimated $258.20 per day. An estimated 1.06 friends and/or family members accompanied each Japanese runner but did not run the race.

Runners from the Mainland stayed longer and brought more friends and family, but spent less per day than their Japanese counterparts.

According to the study, Mainland runners stayed an average of 10.04 days, spending an estimated $167.30 per day. They were accompanied by 1.27 friends and/or family members.

Agrusa said the lengths-of-stay for Japanese visitors and visitors from countries other than the U.S. were both up from last year. Japanese runners increased their length-of-stay by almost a quarter-day on average; walkers stayed even longer, roughly a half-day more than last year.

The report also credits the marathon with assuring full capacity at Honolulu hotels during what is otherwise a slow tourism week. Hotels on the Neighbor Islands typically have 10 percent to 20 percent lower occupancy during the same period, according to the report.

The positive economic impact news follows a difficult period for the marathon association.

The association recently completed an exhaustive two-month video review of the race to make up for widespread timing problems associated with its contracted timing system. The association also had to bear the cost of an extensive repair of areas of Kapi'olani Park damaged by the combination of heavy rains and concentrated foot traffic on marathon day.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.