The department said Tuesday in its latest quarterly economic report that the recovery will be sustained by slowly improving national and international economic conditions and by increasing tourism expenditures in Hawaii.

The department continues to expect visitor arrivals to increase 2 percent this year.

But visitor expenditures are now forecast to increase, by 2.3 percent. That's up from a no-growth expectation in the last forecast.

Total visitor days are now projected to increase 2.1 percent this year, compared with the 0.7 percent increase projected in the previous forecast.