Hawai‘i Visitor Spending Increased 13.4 Percent to $1.42 Billion in April 2018

News Release from HTA, May 31, 2018

HONOLULU – Visitors to the Hawaiian Islands spent a total of $1.42 billion in April 2018, an increase of 13.4 percent compared to last year, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority (HTA).

Hawai‘i’s four largest visitor markets, U.S. West (+11.7% to $547.8 million), U.S. East (+4% to $310.5 million), Japan (+7.1% to $155.9 million) and Canada (+10% to $99.4 million), all reported gains in visitor spending in April year-over-year. Combined visitor spending from All Other International Markets (+34.7% to $297.6 million) also increased in April versus last year.

Visitors also spent more on an average daily basis from U.S. West (+4.8% to $184 per person), U.S. East (+1.4% to $218 per person), Japan (+4.5% to $232 per person) and Canada (+7.6% to $160 per person) in April compared to a year ago.

Total visitor arrivals rose 6.6 percent to 803,005 visitors in April, supported by growth in arrivals from both air service (+6.5% to 786,053) and cruise ships (+11.7% to 16,951). Total visitor days1 increased 5.5 percent in April. The average daily census2 , or the number of visitors on any given day in April, was 227,729, up 5.5 percent compared to April of last year.

Visitor arrivals increased from U.S. West (+8% 347,729), U.S. East (+4.1% to 153,606), Japan (+2.9% to 112,734), Canada (+6.4% to 52,073) and All Other International Markets (+9.2% to 119,910) in April versus last year.

All four larger Hawaiian Islands realized growth in visitor spending and arrivals in April compared to last year.

A total of 1,084,745 trans-Pacific air seats serviced the Hawaiian Islands in April, up 10.9 percent from a year ago. Growth in air seat capacity from Oceania (+15.5%), U.S. West (+14.8%), U.S. East (+12%), Canada (+1.1%) and Japan (+0.7%) offset fewer seats from Other Asia (-0.8%).

Year-to-Date 2018

Year-to-date through April 2018, visitor spending (+10.8% to $6.24 billion) surpassed the results from the same period last year. Visitor spending increased from U.S. West (+9.5% to $2.22 billion), U.S. East (+11% to $1.59 billion), Japan (+8.9% to $771.5 million), Canada (+8% to $567.6 million) and from All Other International Markets (+16.7% to $1.07 billion) compared to last year.

Statewide average daily spending rose to $210 per person (+3.6%) through the first four months of 2018 compared to the same period of a year ago.

Year-to-date, statewide visitor arrivals increased (+8.7% to 3,281,609) versus last year. Visitor arrivals increased from U.S. West (+12% to 1,310,192), U.S. East (+8.4% to 721,101), Canada (+6.3% to 259,760) and All Other International Markets (+12.8% to 438,249), while arrivals from Japan (+0.4% to 495,399) were comparable.

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