ANOTHER STRONG MONTH OF VISITOR ARRIVALS AND SPENDING GROWTH

July 2015 Broke All-Time Record for Monthly Arrivals

News Release from HTA, August 26, 2015

HONOLULU – For July 2015, visitor spending topped $1.42 billion1 (+4.0%) and visitor arrivals to the Hawaiian Islands gained another 5.6 percent, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority (HTA). Most major market areas experienced increased arrivals, led by a 7.2 percent jump in visitors from U.S. West (23,681 more visitors than last year) and U.S. East (+4.9%, 8,653 more visitors). The volume of visitors from Canada and Japan grew 9.5 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively. July 2015 turned out to be the busiest month on record with 816,345 visitors who arrived by air or by cruise ship.

Despite the gain in visitor arrivals, only U.S. West saw higher personal daily spending (+4.3% to $162 per person per day) in July 2015. Furthermore, total expenditures by U.S. West (+10.8% to $539.1 million) and Canadian (+3.6% to $47.3 million) visitors increased, while Japanese visitor expenditures declined 5.4 percent to $194.6 million. U.S. East visitor expenditures of $382.4 million (-0.4%) was similar to 2014. 

All four larger Hawaiian Islands saw growth in arrivals: Maui (+7.6%), Hawai‘i Island (+5.6%), O‘ahu (+3.1%) and Kaua‘i (+2.7%), which contributed to visitor days and visitor expenditure growth on all four islands. However, Lāna‘i witnessed a drastic drop in visitors (-24.5%) and total visitor spending (-81.4%) with only 11 hotels rooms on the entire island currently in operation.

There were 1,097,366 total air seats to Hawai‘i in July 2015, up 6.3 percent from a year ago. Growth in scheduled seats from Canada (+29.9%), Oceania (+13.9%), U.S. East (+11.7%), U.S. West (+6.6%) and a slight increase from Japan (+0.8%) offset a decline in available capacity from Other Asia (-6.9%). The addition of one large cruise ship in July 2015 boosted arrivals by ship by 233 percent.

Year-to-date 2015

Through the first seven months of 2015, arrivals rose 4.2 percent and visitor spending increased to $9 billion (+3.6%). Growth in arrivals from U.S. West (+8.4%) and U.S. East (+2.3%), balanced fewer visitors from Japan (-1.4%). Expenditures by U.S. West (+7.9% to $3.2 billion) and Canadian (+3.6% to $717.2 million) visitors increased, but U.S. East (-1.2% to $2.3 billion) and Japanese (-10.1% to $1.2 billion) visitor expenditures declined compared to the first seven months of 2014.

Maui (+6%), Hawai‘i Island (+5.3%), Kaua‘i (+4.9%) and O‘ahu (+2.7%) saw growth in arrivals compared to year-to-date 2014. Higher daily spending contributed to increased visitor expenditures on Maui (+7.2% to $2.6 billion) and Kaua‘i (+16.3% to $981 million). Visitor expenditures on O‘ahu ($4.2 billion) and Hawai‘i Island ($1.1 billion) were comparable to a year ago.

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