Hawaii Tourism Authority announced today that it has bolstered its industry projections for this year and now expects a record 8.5 million visitors will come and spend $15.8 billion. 

The revisions, which were revealed during a spring marketing update, are more than 4 percent higher than the earlier arrivals projection of 8.17 million visitors and 6.18 percent higher than the previous $14.88 billion spending forecast. 

Just under 8 million visitors came to the state in 2012, topping the previous high of 7.6 million in 2006, HTA said Total visitors in 2012 were up 9.6 percent from 7.3 million in 2011. Visitor spending for the year hit $14.3 billion, surpassing the previous full-year record of $12.8 billion in 2007.