Hawaii Visitor Spending Increased 11 Percent to $1.42 Billion in May 2018

For Immediate Release: June 28, 2018
HTA Release (18-37)

2018-06-28 May 2018 Visitor Stats Press Release.pdf

HONOLULU – Visitors to the Hawaiian Islands spent a total of $1.42 billion in May 2018, an increase of 11 percent compared to last year, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA).

Among Hawaii’s four largest visitor markets, the U.S. West (+9.8% to $525.8 million), U.S. East (+13.4% to $397.8 million) and Japan (+1.2% to $170.8 million) markets reported gains in visitor spending in May, while the Canada market was down slightly (-0.8% to $45.7 million) compared to a year ago. Combined visitor spending from All Other International Markets (+20.1% to $279.7 million) also increased in May.

On a statewide level, visitors spent more on an average daily basis (+4.4% to $207 per person) in May versus last year. Visitors from U.S. West (+1.8%), U.S. East (+4.8%) and All Other International Markets (+11.6%) spent more per day compared to a year ago, while visitors from Canada (-5.9%) and Japan (-0.4%) spent less.

Total visitor arrivals increased 7 percent to 804,135 visitors in May year-over-year, comprised of arrivals by air service (+8% to 796,178 visitors) and cruise ships (-42.9% to 7,957 visitors). Total visitor days[1] rose 6.4 percent. The average daily census[2], or the number of visitors on any given day, was 221,371 in May, up 6.4 percent from last year.

Arrivals by air service increased from U.S. West (+10.5% to 346,612), U.S. East (+8.9% to 188,363), Japan (+2.3% to 120,729), Canada (+4.3% to 26,484) and from All Other International Markets (+6.3% to 113,990).

Visitor spending grew for all four larger Hawaiian Islands in May compared to last year, with increases reported for Oahu (+11.4% to $669.6 million), Maui (+13.7% to $403.1 million), the island of Hawaii (+3.3% $173.9 million) and Kauai (+13.3% to $163.1 million).

The island of Hawaii realized growth in visitor spending despite a drop in visitor arrivals (-1.6%) in May year-over-year. In response to the Kilauea volcano eruption, the Hawaii home-ported cruise ship canceled port calls to Hilo and Kona during three voyages in May. This loss of nearly 6,600 visitors contributed to the overall decrease in visitors to the island of Hawaii in May.

A total of 1,094,018 trans-Pacific air seats serviced the Hawaiian Islands in May, up 12.6 percent from a year ago with growth in air seat capacity from Oceania (+18.8%), U.S. West (+15.6%), U.S. East (+14%), Japan (+2.6%) and Other Asia (+0.6%).

Year-to-Date 2018

Year-to-date through May, statewide visitor spending of $7.66 billion (+10.9%) exceeded the results for the same period last year. Visitor spending increased from U.S. West (+9.5% to $2.74 billion), U.S. East (+11.4% to $1.99 billion), Japan (+7.4% to $942.2 million), Canada (+7.3% to $613.3 million) and from All Other International Markets (+17.4% to $1.35 billion).

[1] Aggregate number of days stayed by all visitors.

[2] Average daily census is the average number of visitors present on a single day.