More tourists came to Hawaii in July than any other month in state history.

There were no unsightly sewage spills or storm runoffs to deter visitors as arrivals jumped 5.6 percent to a record 816,345 and spending rose 4 percent to $1.42 billion, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

The strong month boosted arrivals and spending 4.2 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively, for the first seven months as the state remained on pace for its fourth consecutive record year in both those categories. The previous high in arrivals for any month was 772,808 set in July 2014.

“The growth we have been experiencing is keeping us on track for another milestone year for Hawaii’s visitor industry,” HTA President and Chief Executive Officer George Szigeti said in a statement. “While the growth is not as significant as in previous years, we are still projecting to reach new records in spending and arrivals for 2015.”

August is shaping up to be another banner month, according to Barry Wallace, executive vice president of hospitality services for Outrigger Hotels and Resorts.

“We’re already approaching the end of August and it’s been a boom month, a terrific month,” Wallace said by phone. “We’ll finish the year comfortably ahead of the prior-year number. In each of the last several years, we (Outrigger and Oahu) have been up a double-digit percentage increase in revenue over the prior year. This year probably won’t be double digits, but when it’s up over a record year, that’s a good thing.”

Wallace acknowledged that the negative publicity generated by the sewage runoff this week could have a short-term effect on tourism. Waikiki Beach was nearly empty Wednesday, with only a handful of people in the water as warnings of contamination from the sewage spill kept most visitors on dry land. The water was opened to beachgoers, however, later in the day.

“I was talking with some friends in Australia and they had seen it on their news down there, and Australia is a big market for us,” Wallace said. “It probably is going to have an effect. The headlines that came out from the state Department of Health and the newspapers all referred to it as a large sewage spill, but had they described it as a storm runoff, it would have been less damaging. You talk about raw sewage spill and people have images of lots of ugly things.

“But I’m delighted to know that the city and county have found that the water is now clean and everybody is allowed to go back in.”

OVIDIU ADAM, who was on Waikiki Beach on Wednesday with his wife, Emilia, son Brad, 11, and daughter Mara, 8, wasn’t even aware that there were warning signs posted.

“I didn’t know about it,” he said about the contaminated water as his wife and children waded in the ocean.

Adam, who is from Romania but also lives part of the time in Portland, Ore., said he had been staying with his family in Ko Olina but wanted to venture away from the lagoons there.

“My kids said they wanted some big waves and wanted to do some bodysurfing, and here they are,” Adam said.

Mike Burch, who was with his wife, Cheri, visiting from Mary Esther, Fla., said he wasn’t discouraged by the warning signs about the water.

“We’ve been here for about two weeks and we’ve been all around the island and in the water so a couple days of this doesn’t bother us any,” said Mike Burch, who said they partly came to Hawaii to visit their son, who is in the Navy.

Cheri Burch said that snorkeling in Hawaii is much better than where they live.

“It is so much better here than it is in Florida,” she said. “We live in the Panhandle in Florida and to get good snorkeling you have to go all the way down to the Keys to get the good reefs, and that’s a 13-hour drive.”

AS FOR THE humidity, she said the recent mugginess was nothing to her.

“It’s a lot more humid down there than it is here (in Hawaii),” she said. “When we left it was 97 degrees and humidity at 97, so this is great.”

The U.S. West region, the state’s largest tourism market, led the way last month with a 7.2 percent jump in visitor arrivals to 354,408. The U.S. East also was solid, up 4.9 percent to 186,095.

Japan, plagued by a weak yen, managed a 2.6 percent increase to 134,103, but is still down 1.4 percent year to date. Japan remains Hawaii’s largest international market.

Canada, albeit starting from a lower base, grew 9.5 percent to 26,989 and is nearly even for the year, down 0.4 percent.

Other markets, which include Australia, New Zealand, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Europe and Latin America, rose 3.2 percent to 111,896.

Wallace, of Outrigger, said that while visitor arrivals were strong in July, hotels didn’t enjoy the same type of increase as the overall tourism market because more visitors are choosing to stay in condos and time shares. He said the visitors are also using VBRO (Vacation Rentals by Owner) and Airbnb to book short-term rentals.

“It’s still a visitor to Hawaii, but they’re not paying the Transient Accommodations Tax that we use to drive so much of our infrastructure,” Wallace said.

Despite the gain in visitor arrivals, only the U.S. West saw higher personal daily spending: a 4.3 percent increase to $162 per person, per day. Total spending in the U.S. West, though, jumped 10.8 percent to $539.1 million.

IT WAS A MIXED bag in the other major sectors as the so-called “other markets” boosted spending 4.6 percent to $255.5 million and Canada rose 3.6 percent to $47.3 million. Japan spending, however, fell 5.4 percent to $194.6 million and is now down 10.1 percent for the year. U.S. East spending slipped 0.4 percent to $382.4 million.

The state’s tourism market got a boost from both air and sea last month. Total air seats to Hawaii rose 6.3 percent from the year-earlier month, with Canada showing the largest percentage increase at 29.9 percent. In particular, Kona and Kahului saw double-digit increases in air seats with 20.2 percent and 12.1 percent, respectively.

The addition of one large cruise ship more than tripled the amount of cruise passengers to 2,854 from 857 a year earlier.