Visitor Spending, Arrivals Up in April

Aerial photograph of Kaanapali Beach. (credit: Andrew Short, University of Sydney).

By Sonia Isotov

Total expenditures by visitors who came to Hawai‘i in April 2012 climbed 26.8% over the previous year (or $246.5 million) to $1.17 billion, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority.

This was the highest total expenditures on record for April. There were 647,194 visitors in April 2012, an 11.3% increase in total visitor arrivals.  This was also a new record in arrivals for the month of April, surpassing the previous high of 618,230 visitors in April 2006.

Higher daily spending (+10.4% to $194 per person) also contributed to the record total visitor expenditures.

On Maui, total visitor expenditures on Maui climbed 23.9% to $306.6 million in April 2012.  Visitor arrivals to Maui rose 4% while daily spending was noticeably higher (+20.8%) compared to April 2011.

An increase in arrivals from Japan (+44.4%), US East (+3.2%) and US West (+1.4%) contributed a significant portion of Maui’s growth. For the first four months of 2012, total arrivals to Maui grew 5.9% while total visitor expenditures increased 17.5% to $1.3 billion.

Among the top four visitor markets statewide, arrivals by air from US West rose 3% compared to April 2011 to 277,809 visitors. Total US West visitor expenditures were up 13.1%  to $401.1 million in April 2012, the eighth straight month of growth since September 2011.

File photo.

Japanese arrivals continued to rebound with an increase of 36.2% to 86,685 visitors, though well below the April 1997 record of 157,640 Japanese visitors.  Total Japanese visitor expenditures in April 2012 jumped 45.8% to $153.7 million.

US East arrivals by air grew 1.8% to 122,792 visitors.  However, lower daily spending (-4.9% to $174 per person) resulted in a 2% decline in total US East expenditures to $206.2 million.

Canadian arrivals increased 3.3% to 45,937 visitors, while total Canadian visitor expenditures rose 5.5%% (or $682.1 million), from the same period last year, to $4.78 billion.

Total arrivals grew 9.4% to 2,632,149 visitors in the first four months of 2012, with increases from all visitor markets compared to a year ago.

More detailed HTA visitor statistics can also be found on the HTA website at http://www.hawaiitourismauthority.org/research.