Hawaii’s visitor statistics continue to approach pre-pandemic numbers despite rising inflation and a struggling stock market.
An estimated 757,182 visitors arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in October of this year, representing a 95.1% recovery from the same month in 2019; preliminary visitor figures released by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) showed.
“The October visitor statistics indicates that our tourism industry continues towards a positive recovery due to a strong U.S. market with total arrivals from all markets year-to-date at 88.6 percent of the same period 2019 level with spending at $15.8 billion so far this year,” Mike McCartney, DBEDT director, said in a recent news release from Gov. David Ige’s office.
The October 2022 visitors spent more than those three years ago, the release said. Visitors spent $1.53 billion in October 2022, an increase of 15.1% compared to the $1.33 billion reported for October 2019.
Air travel was the preferred method of transportation. In October 2022, 726,059 visitors arrived in Hawaii by air service, mainly from the U.S. East and U.S. West. Cruise ships brought 31,123 visitors during the month. Overall, visitors stayed an average of 8.98 days in October 2022, up from 8.38 days (+7.2%) in October 2019.
The statewide average was approximately 219,370 visitors per day in October 2022 compared to 215,125 in October 2019.
Only 24,339 visitors were from Japan in October 2022 compared to 134,557 in October 2019 (-81.9%). Those visitors spent $42.2 million in October 2022, a 78.4% drop when compared to the $195.7 million that Japanese visitors spent in October 2019.
During the first 10 months of this year, a total of 7,640,637 visitors arrived in the state compared to 8,625,156 visitors for the same period in 2019, a decrease of 11.4%. Through October of 2022, total visitor spending in the state was $15.88 billion, up 8.5% from the $14.63 billion spent during the first 10 months of 2019.
