Business travelers and honeymooners helped Hawai'i's tourism industry set a September record for visitor arrivals.

A total of 558,990 tourists visited the Islands last month, up 7.1 percent from September 2004, according to data released yesterday from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. That topped the previous record set in 2000.

Visitors spent $913 million, a 14.1 percent increase from the same time a year ago.

"Domestic arrivals in September set a new milestone for the month," said state tourism liaison Marsha Wienert in a statement. "Contributing to the record total arrivals in September was a 72.2 percent increase in meeting, convention and incentive visitors and a 12.7 percent (increase) in honeymooners in the Islands."

The number of people who came here for conventions last month nearly doubled from the previous September to 24,887.

Larger events at the Hawai'i Convention Center included a Narcotics Anonymous convention with 8,500 participants, and a National Guard Association event with 3,500 attendees.

The average length of stay for all visitors fell slightly by 1 percent, but the growth in tourists lifted visitor days by 6 percent.

Daily spending per person grew 7.6 percent to $192.10, and spending per person per trip increased 6.5 percent to $1,633.30.

U.S. West visitor arrivals last month grew 8.7 percent year-over-year to 224,635, while the number of eastern U.S. visitors increased 7.2 percent to 125,492.

International visitors totaled 175,185, a 2.9 percent increase.

Of the total arrivals, 21,681 visitors flew here to board Hawai'i home-ported cruise ships, while another 7,378 people came here via out-of-state cruise ships.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.