A total of 577,540 visitors came to Hawaii in November, up 18 percent from a year ago, the Hawaii Tourism Authority reported today.

Total spending by visitors rose 30.4 percent, or $227.8 million, from November 2009, to $976 million.

Arrivals through the first 11 months of the year totaled 6.45 million, up 8.6 percent from the same period last year.

Total expenditures for the first 11 months of 2010 were $10.3 billion, a 16 percent increase compared to the same period last year, according to HTA.

For the third consecutive month (since September 2010) total visitor spending increased by double digits on all islands.

Average daily visitor spending was up 10.5 percent.

Arrivals from Canada were up 28.2 percent, U.S. West (+23%) and U.S. East (+18.1%), while arrivals from Japan rose 3.3 percent from last November.  Arrivals by cruise ships increased 43.5 percent to 16,952 visitors.

Mike McCartney, HTA president and CEO, said, “Our tourism economy continues to gain momentum.

“November was another strong month with double-digit growth in visitor arrivals and expenditures on all islands.  We are most pleased to see more than 30 percent growth in visitor spending.  This is good news for the entire state and especially our neighbor island communities which are heavily dependent upon tourism.

“It is also important to note that our rate of recovery is well ahead of other competitive destinations such as Mexico and the Caribbean.  However, an analysis by Hawaii Tourism Authority research staff shows that Hawaii is only beginning to see signs of recovery, and we still have a long way to go to offset the declines over the last two years.”