Hawaii tourism celebrated its best month ever for visitor arrivals in July, and those that came spent a little more than last year’s counterparts, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Hawaii Tourism Authority .

Some 835,417 visitors came to Hawaii in July 2016 — a 2.1 percent increase from July 2015. At the same time, visitor spending increased 1.5 percent year-over-year to $1.4 billion.

“It’s inspiring to see the second half of 2016 start with a new all-time record for monthly visitor arrivals,” said George Szigeti, HTA president and CEO.

Arrivals by air grew from Hawaii’s core U.S. West market and from most international markets, but arrivals from the U.S. East were flat and decreased from Japan and Canada.

Spending increased from every major visitor market except Japan, which was flat, and the U.S. East, which declined.

Maui and Kauai saw spending and arrivals gains. While Oahu saw visitor arrivals flatten and visitor spending decline slightly. Hawaii island arrivals were flat and spending declined slightly.

Total air capacity to the Hawaiian islands grew slightly (0.7 percent) to 1,105,181 seats in July 2016 versus last year.

July results helped Hawaii attain positive performance results in the first seven months of 2016. Through July, total visitor arrivals grew 2.5 percent to nearly 5.3 million visitors. Likewise, visitor expenditures through July rose 2.9 percent to $9.15 billion.

“Sustained success in tourism is a team effort. Hawaii’s travel industry partners have been brilliant in consistently meeting the expectations of first-time and repeat visitors, both from the U.S. mainland and internationally. Their collaborative devotion to excellence is the impetus behind Hawaii’s record totals,” Szigeti said.