Buoyed by increased air lift and growth from international markets, Hawaii visitor arrivals continued to recover in October while tourist spending rose for the 18th straight month.

Total visitor arrivals rose by 2.3 percent to 587,711 in October and total spending by these travelers rose by 15.6 percent to $1.1 billion, according to statistics released this morning by the Hawaii Tourism Authority. While visitor arrivals from Hawaii’s core U.S. West Market fell 5.1 percent, arrivals from all other markets rose. And tourists from all markets spent more.

“We are also pleased with continued growth from our international markets, including the second positive month of arrivals from Japan since the devastating earthquake and earthquake,” said Mike McCartney, HTA president and chief executive. “New and additional airlift through 2012 also demonstrates that demand for travel to the Hawaiian islands remains high, and is a good indicator of momentum for the visitor industry in the coming year.” 

For the first 10 months of the year, Hawaii’s visitor arrivals have grown by 2.6 percent to 6.034 million tourists and spending has increased by 14.8 percent to $10.3 billion.