Visitor spending in Hawaii is heading for a record year, hotel room revenue in 2012 is on track for an all-time high and the state’s unemployment rate is at its lowest level since January 2009.

It’s all adding up to more credit and debit card transactions.

Card sales at businesses open at least a year rose 9.4 percent in the third quarter, according to a business activity report set for release today by First Hawaiian Bank, the state’s largest local card processor of merchant services. Hawaii merchants working with First Hawaiian rang up $748.8 million in card sales during the period compared with $684.2 million in the year-earlier quarter. Card sales have climbed in each of the 11 quarters since First Hawaiian began issuing the reports in 2010.

First Hawaiian, the largest bank in Hawaii with $16.1 billion in assets, can track the economic pulse of the state through its processing services. The bank has more than 7,500 merchants on its network, with most of those in Hawaii.

"The economy is getting stronger," said First Hawaiian President and CEO Bob Harrison. "People are feeling better about spending and being responsible about it. … Even though spending is increasing, debt is stable."

Hotel card transactions last quarter jumped 19.3 percent — the largest percentage gain of any of the 16 sectors tracked — and transaction volume for hotels exceeded $151 million, also the most of any sector. It was the highest year-over-year percentage gain for hotels in any quarter since First Hawaiian began tracking the sectors.

"This is further indication that the tourism sector continues to rebound and is leading our state’s economic recovery," said Keith Nagata, senior vice president and business services division manager for First Hawaiian.

Jerry Gibson, area vice president for Hilton Hawaii, said credit and debit transactions at Hilton Hawaiian Village "increased exponentially" in the third quarter as a result of higher occupancy levels.

"Although (hotels in the state) are having a banner year from a revenue standpoint, our expenses are rising with the tide just as fast, so we must be continuously diligent with operations," Gibson said.

Restaurants, another indicator of economic growth, had the second-highest transaction volume in the report at $112.3 million, with card transactions up 8.8 percent.

"We saw an unusual steadiness that transitioned through summer into a (historically) slower period," Duke’s Waikiki General Manager Dylan Ching said. "We saw a little decline, but nothing what we used to experience where there would be a definite slow period. We’re definitely far ahead from where we budgeted from last year in overall sales. We were close to 10 percent up in the third quarter."

Cleveland Realtor Elcin Riza, who was eating lunch at Duke’s on Wednesday with friends Carly Toyzan and Holly Knisely, said it was her first time to Hawaii and that she was loosening up her purse strings.

"Being on vacation, especially my first time to Hawaii, I don’t want to limit myself as far as not experiencing something because I’m trying to save money," she said. "It’s a beautful island, and we’ve definitely experienced things here like paddle boarding, and we’re going to do surf lessons — things we can’t do in Cleveland. So I definitely would not spend my money here on things I can do at home."

Besides hotels, sectors with double-digit percentage gains last quarter included shipping, up 17.9 percent; convenience stores, up 11.1 percent; utilities and communications, up 11 percent; and travel activities, up 10.6 percent.

"Most of those things have some tourism component like convenience stores, hotels and travel activities," said Leroy Laney, an economic adviser to First Hawaiian and a professor of economics at Hawaii Pacific University. "There are some signs of strength spreading to the purely domestic sector. Maybe they’re still in single digits, but there are signs of strength spreading out of tourism to other activities."

Tourism, which is leading the recovery, has seen visitor spending for the first eight months of the year rise 20 percent, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority. The HTA projects visitor spending to hit a record $13.9 billion this year.

Visitor arrivals are up 10 percent through the same period and are forecast by HTA to reach a record 8.2 million.

Revenue per available room, considered the best measure of hotel performance, was $160.41 through August and on a pace that would eclipse the full-year record set in 2006 of $148.65, according to Hospitality Advisors and Smith Travel Research.

And Hawaii’s unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent in August, matching its lowest level in more than three-and-a-half years, according to the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Ching, of Duke’s Waikiki, said he expects the economic momentum to continue through the fourth quarter.

"I think we’ll outperform our budget and last year," he said. "Waikiki has been busy from start to finish, so I don’t see any reason for that to change."