Visitors to the Hawaiian Islands spent a total of $1.31 billion in October 2018, down slightly (-0.7%) compared to a year ago, according to preliminary statistics released by the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA).
Growth in visitor spending from U.S. West (+7.6% to $500.6 million), U.S. East (+4.9% to $303.7 million), Canada (+3.6% to $59.8 million) and Japan (+1.4% to $190.5 million) in October was offset by a decrease in visitor spending from All Other International Markets (-20.2% to $249.2 million).
On a statewide level, average visitor spending was down (-2.4% to $200 per person) in October year-over-year. Visitors from Canada (+4.5%), Japan (+2.1%) and U.S. West (+1.3%) spent more, while spending by U.S. East visitors was nearly flat (-0.5%). Visitors from All Other International Markets (-10.4%) spent less.
Total visitor arrivals rose to 770,359 (+4.4%) in October, with growth in arrivals from both air service (+4.0%) and cruise ships (+20.1%). Total visitor days[1] increased by 1.8 percent. The average daily census[2] (i.e. number of visitors on any given day) in October was 210,960, up 1.8 percent compared to a year ago.
More visitors came by air from U.S. West (+9.3%), U.S. East (+7.3%) and Canada (+1.5%) in October, while fewer visitors arrived from Japan (-3.0%) and All Other International Markets (-4.0%).
In October, Oahu recorded a slight decrease in visitor spending (-0.5% to $598.4 million) despite increased visitor arrivals (+4.3.% to 467,747) compared to a year ago. Maui realized growth in both visitor spending (+1.8% to $377.3 million) and visitor arrivals (+1.8% to 216,606). Kauai also achieved increases in both visitor spending (+2.1% to $145.1 million) and arrivals (+2.4% to 103,089). The island of Hawaii recorded declines in both visitor spending (-11.4% to $169.2 million) and visitor arrivals (-15.7% to 115,573) compared to October of last year.
A total of 1,021,853 trans-Pacific air seats served the Hawaiian Islands in October, up 6.1 percent year-over-year. Growth in scheduled seats from Canada (+20.5%), Oceania (+18.8%), U.S. West (+8.0%), U.S. East (+4.3%) and Japan (+2.9%) offset fewer seats from Other Asia (-17.7%).
Year-to-Date 2018
Year-to-date through October, visitors to the Hawaiian Islands spent a total of $14.93 billion, an increase of 8.8 percent compared to the first 10 months of last year.
Hawaii’s four largest visitor markets, U.S. West (+10.2% to $5.47 billion), U.S. East (+9.0% to $3.84 billion), Japan (+2.1% to $1.94 billion) and Canada (+7.1% to $861.1 million) all reported growth in visitor spending compared to the same period last year. Combined visitor spending from All Other International Markets also increased (+11.3% to $2.77 billion).
[1] Aggregate number of days stayed by all visitors.
[2] Average daily census is the average number of visitors present on a single day.