Hawai‘i Visitor Spending Increased 11 Percent to $1.42 Billion in May 2018

News Release from HTA, June 28, 2018

HONOLULU – Visitors to the Hawaiian Islands spent a total of $1.42 billion in May 2018, an increase of 11 percent compared to last year, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority (HTA).

Among Hawai‘i’s four largest visitor markets, the U.S. West (+9.8% to $525.8 million), U.S. East (+13.4% to $397.8 million) and Japan (+1.2% to $170.8 million) markets reported gains in visitor spending in May, while the Canada market was down slightly (-0.8% to $45.7 million) compared to a year ago. Combined visitor spending from All Other International Markets (+20.1% to $279.7 million) also increased in May.

On a statewide level, visitors spent more on an average daily basis (+4.4% to $207 per person) in May versus last year. Visitors from U.S. West (+1.8%), U.S. East (+4.8%) and All Other International Markets (+11.6%) spent more per day compared to a year ago, while visitors from Canada (-5.9%) and Japan (-0.4%) spent less.

Total visitor arrivals increased 7 percent to 804,135 visitors in May year-over-year, comprised of arrivals by air service (+8% to 796,178 visitors) and cruise ships (-42.9% to 7,957 visitors). Total visitor days1 rose 6.4 percent. The average daily census2 , or the number of visitors on any given day, was 221,371 in May, up 6.4 percent from last year.

Arrivals by air service increased from U.S. West (+10.5% to 346,612), U.S. East (+8.9% to 188,363), Japan (+2.3% to 120,729), Canada (+4.3% to 26,484) and from All Other International Markets (+6.3% to 113,990).

Visitor spending grew for all four larger Hawaiian Islands in May compared to last year, with increases reported for O‘ahu (+11.4% to $669.6 million), Maui (+13.7% to $403.1 million), the island of Hawai‘i (+3.3% $173.9 million) and Kaua‘i (+13.3% to $163.1 million).

The island of Hawai‘i realized growth in visitor spending despite a drop in visitor arrivals (-1.6%) in May year-over-year. In response to the Kīlauea volcano eruption, the Hawai‘i home-ported cruise ship canceled port calls to Hilo and Kona during three voyages in May. This loss of nearly 6,600 visitors contributed to the overall decrease in visitors to the island of Hawai‘i in May.

A total of 1,094,018 trans-Pacific air seats serviced the Hawaiian Islands in May, up 12.6 percent from a year ago with growth in air seat capacity from Oceania (+18.8%), U.S. West (+15.6%), U.S. East (+14%), Japan (+2.6%) and Other Asia (+0.6%).

Year-to-Date 2018

Year-to-date through May, statewide visitor spending of $7.66 billion (+10.9%) exceeded the results for the same period last year. Visitor spending increased from U.S. West (+9.5% to $2.74 billion), U.S. East (+11.4% to $1.99 billion), Japan (+7.4% to $942.2 million), Canada (+7.3% to $613.3 million) and from All Other International Markets (+17.4% to $1.35 billion).

Statewide average daily spending by visitors rose to $209 per person (+3.7%) through the first five months of 2018 compared to the same period from a year ago.

Year-to-date, statewide visitor arrivals increased (+8.4% to 4,085,744) versus last year. Visitor arrivals increased from U.S. West (+11.6% to 1,656,803), U.S. East (+8.5% to 909,464), Japan (+0.8% to 616,128), Canada (+6.2% to 286,244) and All Other International Markets (+11.4% to 552,239).