One of the most surprising things about Hawaii travel this year is the unending appetite of visitors, as well as the unpredictability of tourism, even in what should by now be the off-season. In a “coco” nutshell, you’ve spent more, stayed longer, and for every 50 visitors, you’ve supported one job.
The state “remains positive that Hawai’i will achieve a full recovery by 2025.” Each visitor, on average, puts $250 into the state tax coffer, not including county taxes. Even with this success, however, current Lt. Governor Josh Green wants to impose a $50 fee on all arrivals if elected governor.
When looking at these numbers for September 2022, some will wonder why he would even mess with this success. Visitors statewide spent $1.45 billion last month, up 18.5%. You also stayed longer than pre-Covid, up 5.9% at 8.9 days of Hawaii vacation on average.
The most important visitor sector spending soared in September.
Visitors from the western states are the financial drivers for Hawaii travel. Last month, for example, their numbers increased by 29% and represented 62% of all domestic visitor spending.
The amount they spent was eye-popping as the state reports:
“U.S. West visitors spent $779.8 million in September 2022, up 67.3 percent from $466 million in September 2019.
US-east coast visitors also increased by 28.4% in numbers. These visitors represented 38% of domestic spending. And in dollars, the state said, “U.S. East visitors spent $423.1 million in September 2022, up 46.5 percent.” International visitor numbers and spending remained significantly suppressed.
Kauai eclipsed prior tourism numbers.
One island, Kauai, was a standout performer, where travel soared to record levels, eclipsing 2019 by 12.5%. In September, 105K visitors came to the Garden Island, and spending was +29% compared to 2019.
Oahu’s performance was relatively lackluster.
Visitors to Honolulu were 386K last month, down 16% compared with 2019. Overall visitor spending was up by 12%. Putting those two together tells the story that last month’s Oahu visitors spent far more.
Maui visitors statistics showed a modest uptick.
Maui saw 218K visitors last month, which was +4% compared with 2019. Visitor spending on Maui was a more modest 22.3% increase, compared with Kauai, in total spending.
The Big Island had some increase in visitors but a lot more spending.
Hawaii Island had 118K visitors last month, up 5.3% compared with 2019. Spend was $193M, +32% compared with 2019.
dbedt-hawaii-gov-blog-22-50Do you think this trend will continue?
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I wonder what percentage is the military… and what percentage of tourism revenues comes from them as well.
What does Hawaii actually produce to sell? Used to be big Ag like sugar cane and pineapples. Somehow, money needs tp come in to support the economy.
yes you decrease the visitors and charge rhe ones that go 25% more. i really cant wait to see this trend bite back and watch your numbers plummet. you have killed the golden goose
$50.00 cover charge? $50.00 parking at hotels? $45.00 “resort fee”? $25.00 for Hanauma Bay Plus parking??? Wow. Any other state would be grateful for visitors who stay a short time and leave millions
The almighty tourist dollar is all the hotels and rent a cars are thinking about! We should be thinking about sustainability, conservation and future generations!
youre whole economy is built on tourism. and yet you bite the hand rhat feeds you and whine about it all the time. i dont understand your thinking
Actually, while significant, tourism contributes about 23% of GDP. I’m somewhat at a loss to understand your complaint. If an islander is concerned about sustainability, then it’s logical to apply conservation and kuleana to all residents, local and malahini.
If there was imposed $50.00 per person entry into Hawaii I would not be visiting Hawaii. That is greed! I will go more often to the Grand Cayman instead.
Then the fee will have achieved part of its purpose to reduce the rising tide of visitors. FYI, if you were visiting the U.S. Grand Canyon, you would pay $35 to enter that single park.
If you’re retired on fixed income, which I believe a high percentage of those posting on BOH are, than Hawaii is pricing itself beyond your reach, but you’re being replaced by still working empty nesters, more extended families traveling as a group and professional women.
Professional women are the fastest growing travel group to Hawaii. This year alone my wife and 2 of our daughters went on girl only trips to Hawaii.
During our last stay in October on Maui I observed and commented to my wife about how many women were traveling together.
That’s the group who are spending the big bucks on Hawaiian travel.
Richard,
I truly think you’re on to something.
I think it would be a good idea to see what the room occupancy rates are compared to 2019. Not just dollars spent, but how many people are visiting.
I find it amusing that people blame the Hawaii government for the increased tourism. IMO, it’s just people wanting to get out of the house and nothing more and Hawaii is an easy place to get to. We currently have friends who are on Kauai, it’s their first time there. All of this dust will likely settle in a few months.
Aloha
we visited Maui in May and Kauai in late August . We found Maui to be a pit of outrageous greed and outright gouging by hotels, car rentals, tour services and to a lesser extent restaurants. Kauai was more reasonably priced and affordable in all mentioned areas. Also found Kauai more hospitable on a personal level. I can fully understand why Kauai had such a large upticke compared to other Islands.
Could we get a list of local places that visitors could visit? A few places from each Island. Restaurants, souvenirs, places yo stay and tours.
We visited Kauai at the beginning of this month and observed daily cruise ships docking and crowds wherever we went. The numbers for Kauai are not surprising.
With the current global economic climate we have,This trend is volatile. The current inflation, war in Ukraine, global shortage of workforce and ever increasing prices in commodities and properties its not going to be an upward trend not to mention the proposal of $50 dollar visitors fee. People will be wiser in spending.
No I think it will continue. It’s simply not sustainable. Many people who came this year will not return because it’s just too expensive.
Ohau is over populated, hence the uptick on other islands.
i think josh greens idea to impose a $50 tax on all visitors is a perfect way to cut back on the influx of visitors to our homeland.
An article should be written about where all that money goes to and how little residents actually see of it. The number of visitors being as high as they are is doing far more harm than good. The ocean, marine life, environment, and residents are suffering because of the increased tourism. Our parks, roads, and schools are still in terrible shape. So what good is all this spending by tourism doing for Hawaii?? Or is it really just helping the big corporations and off island investors?
The problems lay at the feet of Hawaii’s government. They either don’t care or don’t know how to create and stick to a budget plan. Hawaii has never managed their money properly. As long as the residents of the beautiful state of Hawaii continue to elect the same “do nothing” nothing will change. I visited in September & the homeless population is completely out of control. They are all along the roads housed in the trees as well as all over the beaches. If Hawaii doesn’t do something about this soon … they won’t have to worry about having too many visitors. The visitors will begin to drop off and go other places. It’s a crying shame to see such a beautiful island of paradise reduced to this. Mahalo!
It won’t reduce numbers, you will just have tourists who are more entitled as they will think they have already paid their “behave however I feel” tax.
Of course average spend is up. I believe this goes hand in hand with average room rate, increased fees, (and fees on the fees), increased costs of food, activities, rental cars etc.
Actually, your observations supply justification to the $50 fee. Call it an environmental impact fee and apply all proceeds to that effort — sustaining local agriculture, buying local, and environmental restoration. More visitors = more environmental damage. We have not even begun to experience the Asian wave coming from Japan and China as they open up travel again.
Japan and China and South korea are already feeling the squeeze so lately their options are Thailand, Bali, vietnam, Philippines. I think this qoute and qoute Asian influx will reduce given the fact that those countries also have their own islands and unique culture and can stretch their budget.
Thanks and agree that Thailand reopening is a relief for Asians. What you are missing are two important reasons why the influx will come to Hawaii as well. In South Korea, Japan and China especially, the cost of goods and services make Hawaii look cheap. Combine that with the cultural connections to Hawaii (Japanese love everything Hawaiian) and living standards of a growing number of upper middle and wealthy Asians, there will be zero drop and likely a rise in Asian visitor counts. Take that to the bank.
The economic global downturn is what will reduce the wave of asian visitors of course not a problem for rich but the working class who once can afford to travel multiple times are the ones who make up the most visitors from their hard earned cash. The high percentage of visitors to hawaii are working class to have that once in a lifetime chance. With all the issues that we have globally I believe this surge of recent visitors is just in its honeymoon phase post lockdown. Give it a couple years.ypu talk about affordability? Hawaii is on the rat race with those countries.
I think that you are underestimating what wealth means to South Koreans, Japanese and Chinese. The Chinese especially have a far higher upper middle class number than even the U.S. Same is true for the average percentage of upper middle class Japanese and Koreans, though the populations are smaller than the U.S. or Canada markets. Costs in South Korea and Japan far exceed the costs in Hawaii. One example:The average cost for a round of golf in Japan is ~$250. Even visitor rates on the Big Island are ~half that amount. Flight times are about the same (HI one hour longer from Tokyo to Honolulu. Of course a trip to Thailand will be cheaper than Hawaii, but wouldn’t you agree that Hawaii is a unique archipelago without the obvious poverty?
A lot of well thought out comments here. We just returned from a three island visit. I agree with a lot of what has been said about the cost of travel. Bottom line is it’s expensive and with inflation it’s going to get more expensive. However shouldn’t the bottom line be the environment? Isn’t that what makes Hawaii special? I’m in favor of an environmental fee, as long as there is oversight to make sure it’s being used for that purpose.
Beautiful place and beautiful people.
I think one needs to look closely at the manner in which the spending is done. My wife and I stay in a condo, go to public beaches, eat at non-chain restaurants, and shop many local stores like bookstores, fabric stores, and such. I suspect, though, that a whole lot of the spending is at the all-inclusive resorts. One arrives and stays put. Uses the semi-private beach, shops at the resort stores, and so on. This may be the desired solution to the local/tourist conflict. So, it is just that the money is spent but where it is spent. As costs (and fees) rise, the lower-end visitor won’t be coming.
This Trent will last for another 2 years, the Virus had limited people from traveling had made people want to get away from being isolated at home, after people get back to normal every day living, they will not be traveling for another few years, because they are living on a budge.
I don’t think the $$$s spent are a fair measure on spending as prices on everything have risen dramatically in Hawaii compared to 2019. I don’t feel this is accomplishment is necessarily something to be proud of or something to brag about. I am still angry with Josh Green. Always felt he appreciated visitors to Hawaii, guess I was wrong.
How much of that travel was planned 4+ months ago?
What do reservations for January look like?