Hawaii’s Latest Visitor Numbers Nearly Reach Pre-Pandemic Figures

Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) today released preliminary visitor statistics, which revealed that the Aloha State received a total of 919,154 visitors during the month of July 2022, demonstrating a 92.4 percent recovery from July 2019’s pre-pandemic numbers.

This represents the highest monthly visitor volume the Hawaiian Islands have experienced since January 2020, just before COVID-19 made its initial impact on tourism. Last month’s tourists collectively spent $1.94 billion during their visits, up 14.3 percent from July 2019’s total of $1.7 billion.

Visitor Arrivals and Spending, According to Major Market:
— All 919,154 of July 2022’s visitors arrived by air (none from out-of-state cruise ships), primarily from mainland U.S.’ western and eastern regions. By comparison, July 2019 saw 995,210 visitors (-7.6 percent) arrive by air.

— The average length of stay by visitors in July 2022 was 9.36 days, up from 8.92 days (+4.9 percent) in July 2019.

— The average daily number of visitors present in the state per day was 277,444 in July 2022, in comparison to a daily visitor count of 286,419 (-3.1 percent) in July 2019.

— From the Western U.S., 528,319 visitors arrived by air in July 2022, representing a 14.2-percent increase over July 2019’s 462,676 visitors. Visitors from this market spent $973.8 million last month, up 45.4 percent from $669.8 million in June 2019. The average daily spending of $211 per person was also considerably higher in comparison to July 2019’s $165 per person (+27.6 percent).

— From the Eastern U.S., 249,157 visitors arrived in July 2022, up 2.3 percent compared to the 243,498 visitors seen in the same month of 2019. This market’s visitors spent $643.4 million last month, an increase of 26 percent over July 2019’s $510.7 million. Average daily spending by visitors from the Eastern U.S. was $260 per person in July 2022, representing a significant increase (+20.1 percent) over the $216 per person figure recorded in June 2019.

— June 2022 saw 23,133 travelers come from Japan, compared to 134,587 visitors (-82.8 percent) who arrived from the same source market in July 2019. Japanese tourists spent $42.8 million in July 2022, versus the total of $186.5 million (-77 percent) spent by visitors from the same market back in July 2019. Average daily spending by Japanese visitors last month ($233 per person) remained even in comparison to July 2019 ($234 per person, -0.4 percent).

— 25,684 visitors arrived from Canada last month, as compared to the 26,939 visitors (-4.7 percent) that arrived in July 2019. Canadian tourists spent a total of $57.1 million in July 2022, versus the 50.1 million (+14 percent) spent by Canadian market travelers in July 2019. Canadian visitors’ average daily spending in June 2022 ($189 per person) increased by 19.6 percent, compared to the same month three years earlier ($158 per person).

— All Other International Markets (including Oceania, Other Asia, Europe, Latin America, Guam, Philippines and the Pacific Islands) provided a combined total of 92,861 visitors in July 2022, versus the 127,510 visitors (-27.2 percent) that originated from All Other International Markets in July 2019.

— A total of 5,439 trans-Pacific flights, representing 1,159,031 airplane seats serviced the Hawaiian Islands, as compared to 5,681 flights with 1,254,165 seats in July 2019.

— Total visitor spending for the first seven months of 2022 added up to $11.16 billion, up 5.8 percent from the $10.55 billion in spending recorded in the first seven months of 2019. So far this year, a total of 5,350,486 visitors arrived in Hawaii, representing a 13.2-percent decrease from the total of 6,166,392 visitors who had arrived during the first half of 2019.

In response to the new data, DBEDT Director Mike McCartney remarked, “As we pass the middle half of 2022 and compare the state’s economic recovery through tourism with 2019, visitors spent 5.8 percent or $610.1 million more during the same period with arrivals to Hawai‘i lower by 13.2 percent or -815,906 for the first seven months. We are currently 86.8 percent recovered from 2019.” The agency is actually forecasting that complete recovery won’t occur until 2025.