Is the plan to add two more timeshare towers to the seven towers at Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort a sound decision or an overdose of audacity during an economic crisis? Too many indicators are present to dismiss the former, as the recovery horizon is within sight—even if more than a year away.

Hilton Hawaii's self-financed project will nearly double the resort's timeshare capacity. Costing hundreds of millions of dollars, construction is expected to start in 2013 and reach completion two years later.

Rick Egged, president of the Waikiki Improvement Association, says the project “;will bring more visitors to Waikiki, which will bring in more investment and tourism dollars.”;

Much of the optimism about Hawaii's tourism industry is the growing presence of China. The number of big-spending Chinese visiting the United States is expected to rise by 15 percent this year, reaching more than 550,000, and Hawaii is a prime destination.

“;Chinese visitors have become Hawaii's highest daily spenders, and recent bookings show that outbound travel from this growing market is picking up again”; following last year's flu virus, says Mike McCartney, president and chief executive of the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

A sales team from the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau will head to Shanghai next week to promote Hawaii as host for international meetings and conventions.

Overall, the University of Hawaii Research Organization predicts that visitor arrivals will increase by 2.9 percent this year and that spending should stabilize.

“;Hawaii's economic recovery has begun,”; the UH economists declared last week. “;Employment is stabilizing and many sectors will begin to add modest numbers of jobs as the year progresses.”;

Recent economic indicators add to the optimism, although shakily. U.S. manufacturing expanded last month at its strongest pace in five years. However, the growth in jobs was down in factories, which increasingly use robots and other machines to create their products.

While the nation's construction sector has continued to struggle, the U.S. Labor Department reports that new jobless benefit claims declined by 6,000, the fourth drop in five weeks. The report adds to evidence that the job market is slowly healing. The nation's non-farm payrolls surged in March as employers added 162,000 jobs and the unemployment rate stayed at 9.7 percent.

The problem is the time lag for a recovering economy to create tax dollars, and the county and state budget shortfalls will extend beyond the horizon seen in the private sector. Gov. Linda Lingle says that could last for three years.