HONOLULU (Island News) — Hawaii welcomed nearly 829,000 visitors in April, a slight decrease from the same month last year.
But despite fewer arrivals, visitors spent a total of $1.7 billion statewide.
“We did see a decrease in visit arrivals from our major markets, notably for that U.S. West market, which was down 4.8%,” said Jennifer Chun, Director of Tourism Research at the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT).
State data show average daily spending jumped more than 14% to $278 per person.
But not every market was down.
New data from Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism shows fewer visitors came to Hawaiʻi in April, but those who did spent more. Total visitor spending rose nearly 5%, with strong gains in shopping, lodging and dining. Officials said the trend reflects shifting travel patterns and higher per-person spending.
Visitors from the U.S. East and Japan increased, while Canada continued to lag.
And although travelers weren’t staying as long, they were opening their wallets more while they were here.
“What happened with expenditures is that per-person-per-day spending really increased, and it increased especially for both the US East and the US West markets,” Chun said.
Spending rose across several categories, including food, transportation, lodging and shopping.
The strongest gains came from U.S. West visitors.
“Shopping for that U.S. West market was up 27% which is huge, and again, it’s like one thing if they were all just buying groceries or something, but fashion and clothing was up almost 20% jewelries and watches, cosmetics and perfume, leather goods. Some of those luxury categories were up, so that’s not just spending a little bit more because things are more expensive,” Chun said.
Maui also saw higher hotel occupancy and room rates, helping boost spending figures as the island continues its recovery.
DBEDT continuously gets feedback from travelers at the airport to help prepare for upcoming months.
“At the gate, when you’re leaving, we’re asking you ‘How much did you spend on Kauai?,’ ‘How much did you spend in the state in general?’ that kind of thing. That’s how we do that, and so we get thousands and thousands of people who respond every month, and we use that data to try and figure out how much people are spending on average,” Chun said.
Looking ahead to summer, tourism officials said bookings remain difficult to predict.
“We’ve been hearing from our hotel partners that it’s not a strong summer, but it’s slowly shaping up. The end of the booking window is a lot shorter, so people are sometimes even booking in the month for that month, and that’s kind of crazy when you think about what people used to like,” Chun said.
