LIHU‘E — A staggering increase in visitor spending pushed the total outlay to a whole other level in the penultimate month of 2023.
LIHU‘E — A staggering increase in visitor spending pushed the total outlay to a whole other level in the penultimate month of 2023.
Visitor spending measured $2.50 billion for the 11-month period ended Nov. 30, 2023, according to a monthly report from the state of Hawai‘i Department of Business, Economic Development &Tourism (DBEDT). That marked the first time visitor spending has hit that threshold on the island.
The total was up from $2.03 billion for the 11-month period ended Nov. 30, 2022, and from $1.73 billion for the pre-pandemic 11-month period ended Nov. 30, 2019. That marked increases of 23.2 percent and 43.9 percent, respectively.
The robust gains in spending were fueled by more visitors to the island with the total at 1,296,565 for the 11-month period ended Nov. 30, 2023. That was up 6.0 percent from 1,223,387 for the 11-month period ended Nov. 30, 2022, and 4.1 percent from 1,245,672 for the 11-month period ended Nov. 30, 2019.
Record levels of tourist spending and what have your politicians done to make life easier for local people? Housing is tough but have they reduced red tape for developers to create affordable lots to build houses on? NO! Have they streamlined the permitting process to make it quicker to attain permits to build affordable housing? NO! Have they removed GET taxes on food and gas? NO! Kauai and the entire state is run by some very disgusting individuals that are doing NOTHING for the local p[eople while collecting BILLIONS form tourists. Moral to this story: DONT BLAME TOURISTS, LOOK AT YOUR POLITICANS PEOPLE!