State sees highest recovery rate in visitor arrivals since pandemic
Maui’s April arrivals still lower than in 2019, though spending is up
Maui’s visitor count in April fell short of pre-pandemic totals, but visitor spending was up last month, as the state overall reported the highest recovery rate in visitor arrivals since the start of the pandemic.
Last month, 243,245 tourists arrived on the Valley Isle, which is 4.4 percent lower than the 254,398 visitors seen at the same time last year and 1.9 percent lower than the 247,984 visitors who came to Maui in April 2019, according to preliminary visitor statistics released by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism on Tuesday.
But visitors to Maui did spend more, with $544.8 million in April, up 9.7 percent compared to the $496.7 million in April 2022 and up 36.7 percent compared to the $398.6 million spent in April 2019.
Statewide, 827,537 visitors came to the islands last month, an increase of 1.1 percent versus the 818,268 visitors in April 2022, but 2.6 percent lower than the 849,397 visitors to Hawaii in 2019.
DBEDT said last month’s figures represent a 97.4 percent recovery in total visitor arrivals from April 2019 and is the highest recovery rate so far since the beginning of the pandemic.
“April marked the 24th consecutive month where visitor arrivals from the U.S. mainland exceeded 2019 monthly levels for those respective months,” DBEDT Director James Kunane Tokioka said in a news release Tuesday. “April U.S. visitor arrivals were 19 percent higher than the same month in 2019.”
Statewide, visitors spent $1.72 billion in April, which was 8 percent higher than the $1.60 billion spent in April 2022 and 30.7 percent higher than the $1.32 billion spent in April 2019.
“Visitor expenditures, as measured by nominal dollars, were 21.7 percent higher compared with the same period in 2019,” Tokioka said. “After adjusting for inflation, real visitor spending was higher than the pre-pandemic level.”
By island, Oahu saw the largest jump in visitors compared to last year — the 454,287 visitors who came in April were a 9.1 percent increase compared to the 416,285 visitors in April 2022, but a 6.8 percent decline versus the 487,367 visitors seen in April 2019.
Kauai also saw an increase in visitors in April with 118,156, which is a 2.2 percent increase compared to the 115,578 visitors seen at the same time in 2022, and an 11.3 percent increase versus the 106,181 visitors in April 2019.
Hawaii island saw 138,448 visitors in April, down 1.3 percent versus the 140,302 visitors in April 2022, but up 6.3 percent compared to the 130,224 visitors seen in April 2019.
Last month, the average daily census of visitors on Maui was 61,735, which is down 9.1 percent compared to the daily census of 67,943 visitors in April 2022 and down 2.4 percent versus 63,280 visitors in April 2019.
Through the first four months of 2023, approximately 3.27 million visitors came to the islands, which is a 16.4 percent growth from the approximately 2.81 million visitors who came in the first four months of 2022.
But so far from January through April this year, total arrivals are down 3 percent compared to the approximately 3.37 million visitors in the first four months of 2019.
Tourism officials see bright spots, including improvements in the cruise ship industry.
“It is encouraging to see the cruise market continue its recovery as the 21,328 visitors that came by cruise ships marked the second-highest count since the start of the pandemic,” Tokioka said.
Statistics for cruise ship arrivals for individual islands were not available.