Hawaii's tourism industry is off to a stronger start in 2013 thanks to more visits by people from western U.S. states and Japan.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority said Thursday that total visitors in January were up nearly 6 percent compared with the same month last year. The islands welcomed nearly 682,000 visitors in January.

Total spending for the month was $1.43 billion, up 5.7 percent compared with January 2012.

The biggest increases in the market came from air travelers from western states. Just over 243,000 visitors came from the region in January, up 9 percent compared with January last year.  Spending from the western U.S. jumped 14.5 percent to $419.6 million.

Visits from Japan increased nearly 8 percent while spending from Japanese visitors increased 3.8 percent to nearly $228 million.