Hawaii tourism figures were off to a bumper start with visitor statistics indicating spending for the month of January reached US$1.345 billion, up 13.9 percent from the previous year.

Hawaii Tourism Authority President and CEO Mike McCartney said it was the highest January on record for expenditures which exceeded the December 2011 high of $1.298 billion, CBS news reported.

The strong growth was attributed to a higher daily spending of USD192 per person and a 7.7 growth in total visitor arrivals to 643,616.

According to recent statistic on a typical day in January there were 223,452 visitors, the last time the figure was higher was in July 2005.

"A strong holiday season, combined with pent up demand for travel to the Hawaiian Islands, increases in airlift and a large delegation of convention attendees were all contributing factors to the increases seen in January," Mr McCartney said.

The MICE industry had increased 25 percent from the previous year, with the American Farm Bureau Federation convention alone welcoming almost 6,000 attendees to Hawaii.

Canada continues to represent a large market for Hawaii with January’s expenditure increasing 22.4 percent to US$165.2million.

Total expenditure by visitors from the United States increased despite a reduction in daily spending.

Mr McCartney said the results for January were a good guide that 2012 will be a positive year.