HONOLULU — Preliminary visitor statistics released by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) shows a total of 818,268 visitors came to the Hawaiian Islands in April 2022, representing a 96.3% recovery from April 2019, and the highest recovery rate since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hawai‘i.
Visitors spent $1.6 billion in the islands in April, an increase of 21 % compared to the $1.32 billion reported for April 2019.
Of the total visitors, 809,612 arrived by air service, mainly from the U.S. West and U.S. East.
Additionally, 8,656 visitors arrived by cruise ships. In comparison, 849,397 visitors (-3.7%) arrived by air and by cruise ships in April 2019.
In April 2022, 514,878 visitors arrived by air from the U.S. West, an increase of 32.5% compared to 388,573 visitors in April 2019. U.S. West visitors spent $940.9 million in April 2022, up 72 % from $547 million in April 2019. Daily spending by U.S. West visitors in April 2022 ($223 per person) was much higher compared to April 2019 ($171 per person, +30.4%).
There were 188,868 visitors from the U.S. East in April 2022, an 18.7 % growth compared to 159,115 visitors in April 2019. U.S. East visitors spent $422.9 million in April 2022, up 47.5 % from $286.8 million in April 2019. Daily spending by U.S. East visitors in April 2022 ($242 per person) increased in comparison to April 2019 ($200 per person, +20.9%).
There were 6,749 visitors from Japan in April 2022 compared to 119,487 visitors (-94.4%) in April 2019. Visitors from Japan spent $15.3 million in April 2022 compared to $164 million (-90.7%) in April 2019. Daily spending by Japanese visitors in April 2022 ($231 per person) decreased compared to April 2019 ($234 per person, -1.3%).
In April 2022, 43,107 visitors arrived from Canada compared to 56,749 visitors (-24%) in April 2019. Visitors from Canada spent $88.8 million in April 2022, compared to $100.2 million (-11.3%) in April 2019. Daily spending by Canadian visitors in April 2022 ($182 per person) increased compared to April 2019 ($154 per person, +18.1%).
There were 56,010 visitors from All Other International Markets in April 2022. These visitors were from Oceania, Europe, Other Asia, Latin America, Guam, Philippines, and the Pacific Islands. In comparison, there were 100,686 visitors (-44.4%) from All Other International Markets in April 2019.
In April 2022, a total of 5,171 trans-Pacific flights with 1,085,948 seats serviced the Hawaiian Islands, compared to 5,031 flights with 1,112,200 seats in April 2019.
Through the first four months of 2022, total visitor spending was $5.83 billion, up slightly (+0.3%) from $5.81 billion in the first four months of 2019. A total of 2,812,030 visitors arrived in the first four months of 2022 which was a decrease compared to the first four months of 2019 at 3,376,675 visitors (-16.7%).
