#visitor arrivals

Hawaiʻi  welcomed slightly fewer visitors in April 2026 than it did a year earlier, but those who came spent more—pushing total visitor spending to $1.77 billion for the month, a 4.8% increase over April 2025, according to preliminary data from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

March visitor statistics released Thursday by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism showed statewide visitor arrivals declined 1.7% in March 2026 compared to March 2025, while visitor spending declined 1.6% to $1.96 billion.

Back-to-back Kona Low storms in March hobbled Hawaiʻi’s tourism economy, triggering an estimated $300 million in lost revenue as flooding, flight cancellations and attraction closures disrupted spring break travel across the islands.

Hawaiʻi’s economy is moving beyond last year’s mild recession, but the recovery will be gradual, according to the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization’s first quarter forecast for 2026 released on Feb. 27. Maui is the standout, as ongoing recovery from the disastrous 2023 wildfires will continue to propel rising tourism activity, if at a slower pace than last year.

Twenty-five months after the Aug. 8, 2023 wildfires, there were 184,201 visitors to Maui in September 2025 compared to 165,322 visitors (+11.4%) in September 2024. Visitor spending was $436.4 million in September 2025 compared to $364.1 million (+19.9%) in September 2024.

Despite decreased arrivals to Maui, Maui County hotels reported improvement in July 2025 with island-wide occupancy improved 6.2 percentage points to 66.7% from 60.5% in July 2024. The Lahaina/Kā‘anapali/Kapalua region had occupancy of 66.2%, up from 57.9% in July 2024.

Twenty-three months after devastating wildfires struck West Maui and Upcountry, visitors are returning to the island, although not yet at levels seen before the disaster. “As we approach the two-year anniversary of the Maui wildfires, tourism on the island continues to improve, but the pace has been slow,” said James Kunane Tokioka, director of the […]

Here on Maui, 14 months after the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires, there were 180,609 visitors to Maui in October 2024, which was higher than October 2023 (134,493 visitors, +34.3%), but below October 2019 (238,043 visitors, -24.1%). Visitor spending increased to $388.5 million in October 2024, compared to $332.9 million (+16.7%) in October 2023 and $379.8 million (+2.3%) in October 2019.

A monthly report by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism shows Maui tourism dropped significantly in July compared with last year, before the Lahaina and Upcountry wildfires.

There were 206,049 visitors to Maui in March 2024, down significantly compared to 276,485 visitors (-25.5%) in March 2023 and 271,934 visitors (-24.2%) in March 2019, according to preliminary data from the state Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism.

“Locally, the Maui wildfires continued to impact visitors to Maui six months after the tragedy,” said Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) Director James Kunane Tokioka. “Maui’s visitor counts decreased by 23.5% compared to January 2023, although there has been progress from August 2023 when visitor arrivals were down by 57.8%. With the active recovery efforts and campaigns, we hope to see continuous improvements over the upcoming months,” he said.

“The impact of the Maui wildfires continues to be felt in November’s figures, but with most of West Maui now reopened to tourism, there is a concerted effort to reinvigorate job opportunities and facilitate the economic recovery of Maui,” said DBEDT Director James Kunane Tokioka.

The impacts from the Maui wildfires were significant in September 2023 with both visitor arrivals and visitor expenditures down by more than 50% for Maui for the month compared to 2022.

Visitor spending on Maui was $619.4 million in June 2023, compared to $549.8 million in June 2022 (+12.7%) and $477.1 million (+29.8%) in June 2019.

Visitor spending was $544.8 million in April 2023, compared to $496.7 million in April 2022 (+9.7%) and $398.6 million (+36.7%) in April 2019.

Maui had 276,485 visitors is March of 2023, up +15.4% from the same time last year, when 239,538 visitors came, and up +1.7% from March of 2019 when 271,934 arrived.

Tourism continued to recover across the state in February, with Maui County reporting double digit increases in visitors and spending over the same time last year.

Maui had a 95.1% recovery in visitors in 2022, compared to 2019, with 2.9 million people visiting Maui last year.  Total visitor spending was $5.69 billion in 2022, up 11% from 2019.  The year-end data was released by the state Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism.  

Overall satisfaction among visitors from Hawai‘i’s primary North American markets has continued its upward trend since the beginning of the year to rival pre-pandemic levels, state officials said.

Visitor arrivals on Maui have recovered to near pre-pandemic levels, with July 2022 arrivals coming in at -1% from 2019.