Tourism growth continued in September; although, visitor arrivals outpaced visitor spending.

Arrivals grew 5 percent year-over-year in September to 701,833 and spending rose to $1.2 billion, up nearly 2 percent from September 2016.

September visitor arrivals grew on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and Hawaii island. Spending rose on the three larger Neighbor Islands but decreased on Oahu. Arrivals dropped from the U.S. East, Hawaii’s second largest market. Still, arrivals grew from the core U.S. West market, Hawaii’s largest international market Japan, Canada and the category all other international markets, which includes Europe, Oceania, Latin America and Asian nations outside of Japan. Domestic visitors spent more in September, while spending by international visitors dropped.

The gains contributed to strong results through the first three quarters. For the first nine months of the year, visitor arrivals rose nearly 5 percent to 7,017,268 visitors and spending increased by 7 percent to nearly $12.6 billion.

“The hard work by Hawaii’s tourism industry professionals has produced strong results in the first three quarters of this year and continues to contribute significantly to the health of the State’s economy,” said HTA president and CEO George D. Szigeti.

Szigeti said the results “generated $1.47 billion in tax revenue for the State, a gain of $96.5 million from last year’s pace.”