Hawaii’s visitor industry continued its summer momentum with 538,516 visitors traveling to the islands in September, an 8.9 percent increase from the same time last year.

Total visitor expenditures jumped 22 percent, or $160 million, from September 2009 to $880 million, the Hawaii Tourism Authority reported today. 

Visitors arrivals have been up every month this year.

“Overall, we are pleased to see year-over-year growth in visitor arrivals and spending during the traditionally slow month of September,” said Mike McCartney, HTA president and chief executive officer, in a prepared statement.

 The HTA will continues its aggressive marketing programs to drive demand for Hawaii, which has seen some stabilization in the market, but has yet to fully recover from the economic slump over the last two years. 

“We are optimistic for a strong fourth quarter and heading into 2011,” he said.

In addition to more tourists, the boost in visitor spending was a result of an 11.5 percent rise in average daily spending.

Total arrivals by air climbed 8.9 percent from the same time last year to 528,304 visitors. 

U.S. West arrivals were up 13.5 percent and Canadian arrivals jumped 13.3 percent, though the U.S. East and Japan were down slightly at minus 0.7 percent and minus 0.4 percent, respectively.

Expenditures for the first nine months of the year totaled $8.4 billion, a 13.7 percent jump from the same period in 2009.