Bookings were strong earlier and there has been a surge of last-minute mainland bookings, said Ken Phillips, a spokesman for Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays of Westlake Village, Calif. "Something has caused a real jump in that activity," he said. "June is going to be somewhere between 12 (percent) and 15 percent ahead of last year. Summer in total looks at this point somewhere between 10 (percent) and 12 percent ahead of last year."

Although Big Island business is about where it was this time last year, it is expected to increase because of additional flights from the mainland, said Phillips, whose company is the biggest producer of mainland travelers to Hawaii. Neighbor island traffic overall is up too, he said.

Keith Vieira

Hawaii business is also way up at San Jose, Calif.-based Classic Hawaii Vacations, said its president Ron Letterman. He cautioned that it's hard to tell Hawaii trends by his company's performance since it has increased its market share and the airlines' commission caps have turned more retail travel agents to wholesale companies like his that do pay commissions.

Given that caution, there is no doubt in Letterman's mind that Hawaii is a strong market now, he said. In passenger volume, Classic Hawaii Vacations showed a 23 percent increase for June, compared with last year. June revenues were up 33 percent. July bookings are up 19 percent with a revenue increase of 21 percent, he said.

August bookings are up 40 percent, with deposits already paid on half of those bookings, he said.

At MTI Vacations, a Chicago-area wholesaler that markets mostly to residents east of California, business is up sharply, said Beverly Bollman, marketing manager. "For summer we're about 15 (percent) to 20 percent up versus last year. August looks great."

Bollman said that MTI's customers tend to book further ahead than the West Coasters do and the company is already booking for the fall. "We had a 30 (percent) to 40 percent increase last year," she said, so this year's hike is on top of that.

Hotel occupancy is being cut into by shorter visitor stays, but room rates are significantly higher than they were last summer, hotel executives say.

"Basically after a pretty lousy May, June came back nicely for the hotels both in Waikiki and on the neighbor islands," said Keith Vieira, vice president and director of marketing for ITT Sheraton Hawaii. Bookings for both July and August at the Sheraton-managed hotels are on target, Vieira said. For the summer, Sheraton is holding on to last year's fairly good bookings but with an important difference. Room rates are up a little more than 12 percent.

"Our goal for the summer was basically to hold (on to) last year's occupancy but get the rates up 12 (percent) to 15 percent, so we're happy with that so far," Vieira said.

Outrigger Hotels & Resorts said its business is strong, too. "Right now the summer is looking very strong for our Waikiki properties. For June, we're pretty close to sold out," said Bryan Klum, director of marketing.

"July in Waikiki is looking very strong and in August we'll have some sold-out days," Klum said.