LIHUE — Visitor spending continued its torrid pace in the first full month of summer despite a swoon in the number of people who traveled to Kauai for holiday.
Total visitor spending climbed to $285.9 million in July, compared with $262.6 million in July 2023 and $201.3 million in pre-pandemic July 2019 for increases of 8.9 percent and 42.0 percent, respectively.
The most recent spending total was the highest for any month on the island in 2024, a monthly report from the state of Hawai‘i Department of Business, Economic Development &Tourism (DBEDT) showed.
The spending gains were posted amid a decrease in total visitors, which eased to 135,846 in July from 139,863 in July 2023 and 139,157 in July 2019. That marked retreats of 2.9 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively.
Across the Hawaiian Island chain, visitor spending was up on Oahu and Hawaii Island but mixed on Maui, whose economy continues to recover from the deadly wildfires on Aug. 8, 2023.
Total visitor spending on Oahu was $960.0 million in July, compared with $842.6 million in July 2023 and $749.4 million in July 2019. That marked increases of 13.9 percent and 28.1 percent, respectively.
There were 565,629 visitors to Oahu in July, up from 527,811 in July 2022, but down from 598,986 in July 2019 for a gain of 7.2 percent and a decline of 5.6 percent, respectively.
Total visitor spending on Maui was $510.6 million in July, compared with $622.2 million in July 2023 and $506.0 million in July 2019. That marked a drop of 17.9 percent and an uptick of 0.9 percent, respectively.
There were 237,495 visitors to Maui in July, compared with 297,082 in July 2023 and 307,834 in July 2019 for drops of 20.1 percent and 22.8 percent, respectively.
Total visitor spending on Hawaii Island was $295.6 million in July, compared with $264.9 million in July 2023 and $221.3 million in July 2019. That marked increases of 11.6 percent and 33.6 percent, respectively.
There were 171,304 visitors to Hawaii Island in July, compared with 173,696 in July 2023 and 173,899 in July 2019 for decreases of 1.4 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.
All told, visitor spending was up 2.6 percent in July from July 2023, while total visitors slipped 1.0 percent in the same period.
Despite the mixed bag of results, the report did show signs of improvement in the state of Hawaii’s tourism industry.
“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 in a statement that accompanied the monthly report.
“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.”
He also said tourism counts should remain about pre-pandemic 2019 levels in the months ahead.
“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.”
