Visitors: over 6 million served

By my count, which extrapolates the state's arrivals estimates, we're hitting 6 million 2007 visitors this week, probably today.  Total arrivals hit 6 million earlier this month, but the state figures that about 15% of arrivals are returning locals, so 6,150,000 arrivals equals 6 million visitors, to the extent that the state is right in its assumptions and estimates. So far this year, arrivals are just a few thousand higher than last year, but Japanese arrivals, which were down noticeably until the end of June, seem to have bottomed out, possibly because the yen has strengthened a lot against the dollar, making yen travel farther in Waikiki.