Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) announced preliminary statistics for the first 9 months of 2018. Year-to-date through September, visitors to the Hawaiian Islands spent a total of $13.62 billion in the first three quarters of 2018, an increase of 9.8 percent compared to the same period last year.
Visitors to the Hawaiian Islands spent a total of $1.28 billion in September 2018, an increase of 6.4 percent compared to a year ago. Visitor spending increased from U.S. West (+2.5% to $460.2 million), U.S. East (+7.9% to $297.3 million) and All Other International Markets (+20.5% to $297.9 million) in September, while spending by visitors from Canada ($43 million) was virtually unchanged from last year. Spending by visitors from Japan declined (-4.1% to $179.9 million) year-over-year.
Total visitor arrivals grew to 724,863 (+3.5%) in September compared to a year ago, with total visitor days[1] increasing by 5.8 percent. The average daily census[2], or number of visitors on any given day in September, was 209,432, up 5.8 percent compared to last year.
More visitors came from U.S. East (+12.0%) and U.S. West (+5.0%) and All Other International Markets (+1.9%), while fewer visitors arrived from Canada (-6.2%) and Japan (-4.0%).
In September, Oahu recorded increases in both visitor spending (+12.2% to $638.9 million) and visitor arrivals (+3.1% to 462,079) versus a year ago. Kauai also realized growth in visitor spending (+21.5% to $153.8 million) and visitor arrivals (+4.1% to 102,041). Visitor spending on Maui was comparable to a year ago (+0.4% to $334.4 million) while visitor arrivals increased (+5.9% to 212,357). The island of Hawaii recorded decreases in both visitor spending (-14.1% to $140.5 million) and visitor arrivals (-14.0% to 102,635).
A total of 1,020,217 trans-Pacific air seats served the Hawaiian Islands in September, up 10.3 percent year-over-year. Growth in scheduled seats from Oceania (+18.4%), U.S. West (+10.3%), Japan (+9.8%), U.S. East (+8.5%) and Canada (+4.2%) offset fewer seats from Other Asia (-4.7%).
Visitor Results Year-to-Date Through Three Quarters of 2018
Year-to-date through September, visitors to the Hawaiian Islands spent a total of $13.62 billion in the first three quarters of 2018, an increase of 9.8 percent compared to the same period last year.
Hawaii’s four largest visitor markets, U.S. West (+10.5% to $4.97 billion), U.S. East (+9.4% to $3.54 billion), Japan (+2.2% to $1.75 billion) and Canada (+7.4% to $801.3 million) all reported growth in visitor spending in the first three quarters versus the same period last year. Combined visitor spending from All Other International Markets also increased (+15.8% to $2.53 billion).
Total visitor arrivals rose to 7,492,138 (+6.5%) in the first three quarters, comprised of arrivals by air service (+6.7% to 7,415,711) and cruise ships (-11.8% to 76,427) compared to a year ago. Visitor arrivals by air increased from U.S. West (+9.6% to 3,140,814), U.S. East (+8.4% to 1,665,821), Canada (+4.0% to 382,394) and All Other International Markets (+6.8% to 1,050,723), but declined from Japan (-1.9% to 1,175,960).
[1] Aggregate number of days stayed by all visitors.
[2] Average daily census is the average number of visitors present on a single day.
