The Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) announced preliminary statistics for November 2018; showing 4.3% growth in tourist arrivals and 0.3% decrease in spending.
Visitors to the Hawaiian Islands spent a total of $1.29 billion in November 2018, which was nearly flat (-0.3%) compared to November 2017.
In November, growth in visitor spending from the U.S. West (+6.5% to $533.1 million), U.S. East (+9.3% to $292.3 million) and Canada (+2.6% to $99.6 million) markets was offset by decreases from Japan (-0.4% to $182.7 million) and All Other International Markets (-26.5% to $175.3 million).
On a statewide level, average daily visitor spending was down (-3.2% to $193 per person) in November year-over-year. Visitors from U.S. East (+4.0%) and Canada (+2.2%) spent more per day, while visitors from Japan (-3.8%) and All Other International Markets (-12.1%) spent less.
Total visitor arrivals rose to 781,990 (+4.3%) in November compared to a year ago, with growth realized in arrivals from both air service (+4.1% to 770,126) and cruise ships (+21.1% to 11,864). Total visitor days[1] increased by 3.0 percent. The average daily census[2] (i.e. number of visitors on any given day) in November was 221,935 (+3.0%).
More visitors came by air from U.S. West (+11.3%), U.S. East (+7.5%), Japan (+3.1%) and Canada (+0.7%) in November, while fewer visitors came from All Other International Markets (-19.7%) versus last year.
Oahu, Maui and Kauai all recorded increases in both visitor spending and visitor arrivals in November year-over-year. Visitor spending on Oahu grew slightly to $609.1 million (+0.9%) with visitor arrivals increasing to 456,121 (+2.8%). Maui saw visitor spending grow to $364.6 million (+1.7%) and visitor arrivals to 225,178 (+4.1%). Visitor spending on Kauai increased to $141.7 million (+13.9%) and visitor arrivals to 102,516 (+6.4%). The island of Hawaii recorded declines in both visitor spending of $154.4 million (-18.3%) and visitor arrivals of 123,032 (-10.0%).
A total of 1,035,694 trans-Pacific air seats served the Hawaiian Islands in November, up 7.3 percent year-over-year. Growth in scheduled air seats from Canada (+15.8%), U.S. West (+10.8%), Japan (+10.7%), Oceania (+2.7%) and U.S. East (+0.4%) offset fewer air seats from Other Asia markets
(-37.9%).
Year-to-Date 2018
Year-to-date through the first 11 months of 2018, visitors to the Hawaiian Islands spent a total of $16.22 billion, an increase of 8.0 percent compared to the same period last year.
Hawaii’s four largest visitor markets, U.S. West (+9.9% to $6.01 billion), U.S. East (+9.0% to $4.13 billion), Japan (+1.9% to $2.12 billion) and Canada (+6.6% to $960.7 million), all reported growth in visitor spending compared to the same period last year. Combined visitor spending from All Other International Markets also increased (+8.0% to $2.95 billion).
Year-to-date through November, total visitor arrivals increased (+6.1% to 9,044,488) versus last year, with growth from U.S. West (+9.7% to 3,822,064), U.S. East (+8.3% to 1,956,288), Canada (+3.4% to 465,497) and All Other International Markets (+3.5% to 1,249,624) offsetting fewer visitors from Japan (-1.5% to 1,440,289).
All four larger Hawaiian Islands realized growth in visitor spending over the first 11 months of 2018. Visitor arrivals increased on Oahu, Maui and Kauai but declined slightly on the island of Hawaii.
A total of 12,066,873 trans-Pacific air seats served the Hawaiian Islands year-to-date through November, up 8.8 percent from the same period last year.
[1] Aggregate number of days stayed by all visitors.
[2] Average daily census is the average number of visitors present on a single day.
