Hawaii hotels set a statewide record for July monthly room revenue as the surging visitor industry remained on pace to establish full-year highs for both arrivals and spending.

With Oahu leading the way, statewide room revenue for the month jumped 18.2 percent to $310 million.

"It’s just been an incredible summer," said Hospitality Advisors CEO Joe Toy, who released the hotel report with Smith Travel Research today. "I can’t find anyone in Waikiki that’s unhappy now."

Statewide hotel occupancy rose 5.8 percentage points to 81.9 percent in July compared with the same month a year ago. Likewise, the statewide average daily rate (ADR) rose to an all-time high of $214.40, up 8.6 percent over July 2011. Revenue per available room, or RevPAR, considered by many to be the best measure of hotel performance, climbed 16.9 percent to an all-time high of $175.59.

Increases in visitors from high-yield markets such as the honeymoon and wedding markets, and the international meetings, conventions and incentive market, contributed to the gains, Toy said.

Oahu saw its occupancy rise 8.5 percentage points to 91.8 percent in July due mainly to increases in Asian arrivals and to the Rim of the Pacific multinational naval exercises held from June 27 to Aug. 7, which brought an estimated 25,000 military participants to Hawaii. Oahu’s July ADR increased 15.8 percent to $195.12 and its RevPAR rose 27.6 percent to $179.12.

"It was the best month ever for any given month of the year on Oahu," Toy said.

Heading into July, Hawaii was outperforming other Pacific states in terms of RevPAR, said David Sheatsley, vice president of research for MMGY Global, who spoke at a Hawaii Tourism Authority conference last week. It also outpaced the U.S. as a whole and the West Coast in terms of occupancy and ADR, Sheatsley said.

"It must be great to be No. 1," he said.

By July, Oahu had added $28 per night to its average daily rate from the prior trough, said Jan Freitag, senior vice president of Smith Travel Research. Hawaii’s ADR recovery was second only to New York and San Francisco, Freitag said. As of July, Oahu was getting $3 more per night than it did at the prior peak, he said.

While hotel performance strengthened on the neighbor islands in July, no other market came close to Oahu’s results. Maui’s occupancy climbed 2.3 percentage points to 74.4 percent while its ADR rose 3.9 percent to $273.84 and its RevPAR grew 7.2 percent to $203.74. July occupancy on Kauai grew 4.7 percentage points to 75.2 percent, while its ADR rose 5.5 percent to $223.84 and its RevPAR grew 12.5 percent to $168.33. On Hawaii island, occupancy rose to 64.1 percent, a 2.3 percentage-point gain from July 2011. Hawaii island’s July ADR fell 1.92 percent to $189.89, while its RevPAR grew 1.7 percent to $121.72

"I was disappointed to hear about the closing of Keauhou Beach Hotel," said David Uchiyama, HTA’s vice president of brand management. "We need to work harder for our neighbor islands."

Owner Kamehameha Schools announced less than two weeks ago that it planned to close the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Hotel on Oct. 31. The closing, motivated in part by ailing performance and the need for costly investments, will put approximately 142 employees out of work.

Through the first seven months of the year, Hawaii hoteliers statewide saw occupancy rise 4.7 percentage points to 77.8 percent. ADR increase 7.3 percent to $203.39 and RevPAR grow 14.2 percent to $158.24.