LIHUE — The island of Kauai might not have seemed lighter in August, at least by a people count, but it was as the number of visitors and the money they spent dropped significantly in the second full month of summer.
The retreat in visitors was nothing new on a comparable basis, but the decrease in spending marked the first time this year that it has been lower than the same month from a year earlier.
Total visitor spending retreated to $209.8 million in August from $234.7 million in August 2023, a monthly report from the state of Hawai‘i Department of Business, Economic Development &Tourism (DBEDT) showed on Monday, Sept. 30.
That marked a decrease of 10.6 percent in the period.
At the same time, the number of visitors to the Garden Island backed up 8.7 percent to 118,608 in August from 129,853 in August 2023.
Despite the turnaround in the amount of money visitors poured into the island economy while on holiday in August, visitor spending remained on track to eclipse the record of $2.76 billion set in 2023.
For the eight-month period ended Aug. 31, total visitor spending was $1.97 billion, compared with $1.82 billion in the eight-month period ended Aug. 31, 2023. That marked an increase of 7.9 percent.
Across the Hawaiian Island chain, visitor spending was up on Oahu and Maui, but down on Hawaii Island.
Total visitor spending on Oahu was $916.0 million in August, compared with $813.5 million in August 2023 for an increase of 12.6 percent.
There were 512,661 visitors to Oahu in August, which was up 1.0 percent from 507,521 in August 2023.
Total visitor spending on Maui was $366.0 million in August, compared with $242.3 million in August 2023 for an increase of 51.1 percent.
At the same time, the number of visitors jumped 79.8 percent to 204,596 from 113,771 as the island continues to recover from the devastating wildfires on Aug. 8, 2023.
Total visitor spending on Hawaii Island sank 10.2 percent to $222.1 million in August from $247.4 million in August 2023, while the number of visitors fell 6.2 percent to 145,101 from 154,739 in the same period.
All told, visitor spending on Hawaii was up 11.4 percent in August, while the visitor count rose 6.4 percent.
Those numbers were apparently less than hoped for in the month, in part because of a challenging Japanese market.
“Though visitor expenditures and arrivals increased in August 2024 as compared with August 2023, a low month for tourism due to the Maui wildfires, tourism industry performance in August was lower than expected,” said DBEDT Director James Kunane Tokioka in a statement that accompanied the monthly report.
“This August registered as the lowest performing month during the summer season. August 2024 was a challenging month for the Japanese market, having to deal with three major storm systems, which caused many to change their travel plans.”
