HONOLULU — The number of visitors to the state slightly declined, but total visitor spending increased between July 2023 and July 2024, according to preliminary statistics from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

What You Need To Know

  • There were 925,935 visitors to Hawaii in July 2024, down 1.0% from the same period a year earlier. Total visitor spending measured in nominal dollars (not adjusted for inflation) was $2.07 billion, up 2.6% from July 2023
  • The July 2024 total visitor arrivals represent a 93% recovery compared to pre-pandemic July 2019; total visitor spending was $1.7 billion (22%) higher than July 2019
  • Tokioka noted that Maui visitor numbers continued to improve, with 237,495 visitor arrivals in July, the highest since the wildfires. This total represents a recovery rate of 79.9% from the pre-wildfire level
  • Overall, 5,706,863 visitors arrived in the first seven months of 2024, which was a decrease of 3.3% from 5,902,238 visitors in the first seven months of 2023. Total arrivals declined 7.5% when compared to 6,166,392 visitors in the first seven months of 2019

According to the new data, there were 925,935 visitors to Hawaii in July 2024, down 1.0% from the same period a year earlier. Total visitor spending measured in nominal dollars (not adjusted for inflation) was $2.07 billion, up 2.6% from July 2023.

The July 2024 total visitor arrivals represent a 93% recovery compared to pre-pandemic July 2019; total visitor spending was $1.7 billion (22%) higher than July 2019.

“Though our visitor industry is still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and Maui wildfires, the July visitor statistics showed some reasons for encouragement,” said DBEDT director James Kunane Tokioka. “Visitor arrivals from the U.S. West market at more than half of a million in July 2024 were the highest during the past two years. The 66,557 visitors from Japan in July were the third highest since March 2020 for this market.”

Tokioka noted that Maui visitor numbers continued to improve, with 237,495 visitor arrivals in July, the highest since the wildfires. This total represents a recovery rate of 79.9% from the pre-wildfire level.

“It is expected that visitor arrivals from the U.S. markets will remain above the 2019 levels for the remainder of the year and arrivals from Japan will continue recovering as the Japanese exchange rate has been improving during the past few weeks,” Tokioka said.

DBEDT reported that the average length of stay by all visitors in July 2024 was 8.81 days, compared to 9.05 days (-2.6%) in July 2023 and 8.92 days (-1.2%) in July 2019. The statewide average daily census was 263,281 visitors in July 2024, compared to 273,051 visitors (-3.6%) in July 2023 and 286,419 visitors (-8.1%) in July 2019.

While the number of visitors from the U.S. West (503,378) increased by 0.8% from July 2023 to July 2024, the U.S. East visitor count (231,490) was down sharply at -7.2%.

While Japanese visitor numbers still trail far behind pre-pandemic levels, July 2024 saw a significant increase over the same period a year earlier. Last month, there were 66,557 visitors from Japan, a 32.3% jump from the 50,310 recorded a year before. That figure is still less than half of the 134,587 Japanese visitors that came in July 2019.

Overall, 5,706,863 visitors arrived in the first seven months of 2024, which was a decrease of 3.3% from 5,902,238 visitors in the first seven months of 2023. Total arrivals declined 7.5% when compared to 6,166,392 visitors in the first seven months of 2019.

In the first seven months of 2024, total visitor spending was $12.33 billion, down from $12.84 billion (-3.9%) in the first seven months of 2023, but higher than $10.55 billion (+16.9%) in the first seven months of 2019.

Michael Tsai covers local and state politics for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at michael.tsai@charter.com.