Princess Cruises plans to send more ships to Hawai'i next year — welcome news to the state's tourism industry, which had suffered a plunge in the number of sailings over the past two years.

The California-based company announced that it has scheduled 19 sailings for the 2010-11 season, up from a schedule of about 14 or 15 previously, according to spokeswoman Julie Benson.

Industry officials hope this increase could signal a recovery in the once-promising cruise business in Hawai'i.

State tourism liaison Marsha Wienert called the bump in the Princess schedule "very good news." Even though it's too early to tell if other cruise lines will follow, she said it shows increased confidence in sailing to Hawai'i.

"Hopefully Princess will be the leader in increasing ships to Hawai'i," she said.

The cruise business here rose in 2005 and 2006 and peaked in 2007 when NCL America was operating three cruise ships on regular interisland voyages — the Pride of Hawai'i, the Pride of Aloha and the Pride of America.

Hawai'i's popularity also had picked up as part of trips by foreign-flagged ships that included Princess, Holland America and other lines.

Then cruise prices sank and NCL pulled two of the ships out of Hawai'i, citing falling revenue and high expenses associated with U.S. crews that are required on U.S.-flagged ships. Foreign-flagged vessels, which are not bound by U.S. labor laws, can hire lower-wage workers.

The Pride of Hawaii departed in February 2008, and the Pride of Aloha left three months later. Wienert acknowledged that the cruise-ship business got hit hard twice — once when NCL took away the two ships — and again with the uncertainty of whether federal "cabotage" rules would change, requiring longer port stays for foreign-flagged ships.

Because cruise-ship companies set their schedules months, and sometimes years, in advance, the anxiety over the proposed rule changes had a lingering effect, Wienert said. The proposed rule changes were later killed.

"We had also lost that window of opportunity because they were already setting the 2008-09 season and even the next year," she said.

This year's cruise numbers got another bump when NCL canceled a previously scheduled drydock that would have put Pride of America out of Hawai'i service for six weeks.

Instead, spokeswoman Courtney Recht said the Miami-based corporation has now scheduled a shorter drydock here at Pearl Harbor April 24 to May 8.

"We have 68 cruises round-trip from Honolulu scheduled for Pride of America in 2010 and all of those cruises include stops in Kahului, Hilo, Kona and Nawiliwili," Recht said.

Generally, cruise-ship passengers offer a chance to attract travelers who might not otherwise come to Hawai'i, Wienert said.

"Cruisers do cruises and those are the kinds of vacations that they are going to take," she said. In addition, cruise visitors tend to participate in a lot of activities, through shore excursions that include helicopter flights, horseback-riding, volcano-watching and other attractions.

"When you look at the total picture, you want a diverse clientele," Wienert said.

A state-commissioned study released in December concluded that direct benefits of cruise tourism amount to $475.4 million a year, while the costs to the state are less than $3.3 million a year.

The industry has welcomed the boost in tourism and economic benefits brought by the cruise industry. But some have questioned whether the benefits are offset by the negative impacts on the environment, including air and water pollution from discharges from the big vessels.

At Princess, Benson said the decision was made to do more trips to Hawai'i and the South Pacific, while canceling some Mexico trips.

Two of the added Princess Cruises will be Pacific crossings aboard the Sapphire Princess that start on the West Coast and tour the Hawaiian Islands en route to Sydney. The other additional cruises will originate on the West Coast, tour the Hawaiian Islands, and return to the West Coast.

Pricing for the West Coast round-trip cruises start at $1,995 per person, while the Pacific crossings start at $4,195 per person.

Princess Cruises operates a fleet of 17 ships, with sailings to all seven continents, ranging in length from seven to 107 days. The company is part of Carnival Corp.