Visitor spending crosses $2B mark on Kaua‘i

LIHU‘E — Visitor spending crossed the $2 billion mark on the island of Kaua‘i, marking the earliest period of time that level of spending has been achieved.

The spending total climbed to $2.05 billion for the nine-month period ended Sept. 30 from $1.69 billion in the nine-month period ended Sept. 30, 2022, and $1.46 billion in the pre-pandemic nine-month period ended Sept. 30, 2019.

That marked increases of 21.3 percent and 40.7 percent, respectively, according to a monthly report from the state of Hawai‘i Department of Business, Economic Development &Tourism (DBEDT).

The swell in spending came amid steady gains in the number of people who visited the Garden Island in the first nine months of the year.

The total visitor count increased to 1,080,321 in the nine-month period ended Sept. 30 from 1,012,279 in the nine-month period ended Sept. 30, 2022, and from 1,039,227 in the nine-month period ended Sept. 30, 2019. That marked gains of 6.7 percent and 4.0 percent, respectively.

Neighbor islands

Visitor spending was up across the island chain, in part because of inflationary pressure which has driven up prices on everything from a beer to a hotel room in the past year.

Spending on O‘ahu weighed in at a whopping $6.80 billion in the nine-month period ended Sept. 30. That figure was up from $6.41 billion in the nine-month period ended Sept. 30, 2022, and $6.11 billion in the nine-month period ended Sept. 30, 2019.

Spending on Maui came in at $4.55 billion in the nine-month period ended Sept. 30. That number was up from $4.35 billion in the nine-month period ended Sept. 30, 20222 and $3.86 billion in the nine-month period ended Sept. 30, 2019.

Spending on Hawai‘i Island totaled $2.20 billion in the nine-month period ended Sept. 30. That was up from $2 billion in the nine-month period ended Sept. 30, 2022, and $1.72 billion in the nine-month period ended Sept. 30, 2019.