HONOLULU -- Labor day weekend marked the official end of the summer tourism season, and the visitor industry is celebrating some big numbers that haven’t been seen in two years.

Tourism officials said visitors spent $1.1 billion in Hawaii during the month of July. State tourism liaison Marsha Wienert said the last time visitors funneled $1 billion into the state’s economy was in 2008.

Most of the money came from conventions and special events.

Rimpac – the Navy’s multi-national war games attracted thousands of people to the islands.

Wienert said there were two other conventions that brought in at least 4,000 visitors each in July.

“It added a whole bunch of new arrivals to the islands and a lot more visitor spending. So it tells you the importance of that group market,” Wienert said.

That market includes meetings, conventions and incentive businesses, which resulted in a 22 percent increase in visitors to Hawaii between July 2009 and July 2010.

So far this year, meetings, conventions and incentive businesses are bringing in 25.8 percent more visitors than last year.

Wienert is also excited about domestic visitor numbers, which increased 8.4 percent from July 2009 to July 2010.

International visitor numbers are also up, 13 percent for July.

Wienert said a combination of additional airline seats and value vacation packages are giving the industry a much need boost. “The results of that have given us unbelievable increases in arrivals this summer. We believe August is going to be the same kind of results,” Wienert said.

The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism is scheduled to released visitor numbers for August sometime during the last week of September.

Wienert hopes additional airline seats and value packages will sustain the tourism industry through the slower fall season.

But on Tuesday, some Waikiki tourists said they purposely schedule their vacations outside of the busy summer months. “Less crowded. It was a good opportunity to come. We did manage to get good airfares on the Internet,” said California resident Tom Van Horn.

“The airfare was cheaper and we had a nice place to stay,” added California resident Cindy Smith.