After a 5 percent drop in visitor arrivals to the Big Island in June, Hawaii’s tourism marketing officials want to change the existing consumer perception from “It’s not the right time to visit” to “Now just may be the best time ever to visit.”

That’s the message Jay Talwar, chief marketing officer for Hawaii Tourism United States, hopes to get across during a new marketing push by the Hawaii Tourism Authority. The HTA decided last week to pump another $1.2 million into marketing to counter the impact of the Kilauea Volcano eruption, which began May 3.

While the volcano has hurt tourism on Hawaii island, the rest of the state continues to attract visitors at a record pace.

The HTA reported Tuesday that total visitor arrivals statewide grew just over 7 percent to 897,099 visitors in June. Total spending in June was $1.6 billion, up more than 10 percent from June 2017. On any given day last month, there were 272,020 visitors in the islands, up nearly 9 percent compared with June 2017.

Oahu, Maui and Kauai experienced solid June gains.

The June results added to a robust midyear report for Hawaii tourism, which was buoyed by a more than 10 percent increase in air seats from the same period in 2017. Total arrivals to the state during the first six months of the year rose more than 8 percent to just shy of 5 million, and spending increased almost 11 percent to $9.3 billion.

Still, Hawaii island’s downturn has given HTA and other tourism stakeholders cause for concern.

The HTA board voted Thursday to fund the additional emergency marketing to drive traffic to Hawaii island.

John Monahan, Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau president and CEO, told the HTA board that the “dramatic drop in the booking pace” required an immediate response which couldn’t wait for an alternate lava viewing spot to open.

Tourism to the Big Island, it’s assumed, would pick up if visitors were allowed to get close enough to view the lava river created by fissure 8. The state and county have been working on identifying a safe lava viewing site for months but said Tuesday that it was still too premature to reveal specifics. Without that the only way to view the spectacle is by helicopter or boat.

Before the eruption began, “Hawaii island was leading the pack in terms of growth in tourism. But the reaction was swift over the monthlong period in May. People were canceling their reservations or changing to other islands,” Monahan said.

Monahan said third-party providers have told HVCB that their forward bookings were up 20 percent in April but had dropped 46 percent in May and 43 percent in June. Group bookings also are suffering, he said.

“Air quality continues to be a concern to some people. The other is ‘I can’t see the volcano, it’s closed and it’s a major reason that I was going,’” he said. Most of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park has been closed due to the danger of the eruption.

The eruption has had an impact on Japanese arrivals, the state’s No. 1 source of foreign visitors.

Eric Takahata, managing director of Hawaii Tourism Japan, said total visitors to Hawaii from Japan were up more than 3 percent in June and more than 7 percent during the first six months of the year. However, he said overall arrivals from Japan are much lower than expected because of a downturn on Hawaii island, where they dropped 8 percent in June and nearly 5 percent during the first six months of 2018.

“We were expecting the numbers to be up double digits,” Takahata said. “The additional marketing money has limited the bleeding, but it’s really crucial that we get alternate viewing sites — that would be the stopper. Right now we’re trying to highlight everything else the Big Island offers, and we are doing everything that we can to make sure Hawaiian Airlines and Japan Airlines keep offering direct flights between Japan and Kona.”