Visitor Spending Rose for Sixth Straight Month in November Visitor Arrivals Set New November Record

News Release from HTA, December 28, 2016

HONOLULU – Visitors to the Hawaiian Islands spent a total of $1.2 billion in November 2016, a gain of 5.6 percent versus last November and the sixth consecutive month with a year-over-year increase, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority (HTA). Total visitor arrivals grew 4.7 percent to 696,890 visitors, the most ever recorded for the month of November. Total visitor days1 grew 3.6 percent compared to a year ago.

In November 2016, growth in visitor arrivals and higher average daily spending contributed to gains in total visitor spending from U.S. West (+5.1% to $457.3 million), Japan (+13% to $187.5 million), Canada (+7.5% to $85.3 million) and All Other International Markets (+11.4% to $236.4 million). For U.S. East, despite an increase in visitors, lower daily spending led to a drop in total visitor spending (-4.5% to $246.3 million) compared to November 2015.

There were 686,970 visitors (+4.2%) who came by air and 9,920 visitors (+56.8%) who came via cruise ships in November 2016. Arrivals by air rose from U.S. West (+2.3% to 293,744), U.S. East (+4.5% to 124,328), Japan (+4.6% to 125,982), Canada (+3.1% to 44,371) and All Other International Markets (+9.5% to 98,544).

Statewide average daily spending rose to $200 per person (+1.9%) in November 2016 compared to last November. Visitors from U.S. West (+3.9%), Japan (+7.3%), Canada (+6.8%) and All Other International Markets (+3.2%) spent more per day, while visitors from U.S. East spent less (-7.8%).

All of the Hawaiian Islands realized growth in visitor arrivals in November 2016 with Lāna‘i (+51%), Kaua‘i (+5.5%) and the island of Hawai‘i (+5.5%) showing the largest gains. Visitor spending increased for Maui and the island of Hawai‘i, showed no growth for O‘ahu, and declined for Kaua‘i.

The total number of air seats serving the Hawaiian Islands decreased slightly (-1.1% to 918,646) in November 2016 year-over-year. There were more scheduled seats from Other Asia (+22.5%) but fewer seats from Oceania (-11.1%), Japan (-3.5%) and U.S. West (-1.7%).

Year-to-Date 2016

Year-to-date through November 2016, total visitor arrivals (+3% to 8,112,920) and visitor spending (+4.1% to $14 billion) exceeded the pace of 2015, keeping Hawai‘i’s tourism industry on track to set new annual records in both categories.

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