Maui Visitor Arrivals Increase 7.6 Percent in July 2015

Maui image: Krannichfeld Photography

By Maui Now Staff

July 2015 broke the all-time record for monthly arrivals to the Hawaiian Islands and visitor spending saw an upswing, according to a recent report by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority.

There were 1,097,366 total air seats to Hawai‘i in July 2015, up 6.3 percent from a year ago. Visitor spending topped $1.42 billion (up 4%).

Maui County Arrivals and Spending

Maui arrivals jumped 7.6% to 243,041 visitors. The number of visitors who stayed exclusively on Maui rose 11.2%; day trip visitors decreased by 17.4%. Daily spending on Maui declined 5.3% to $199 per person, impacting total expenditures, which only increased 3.9% to $387.8 million.

The Island of Lāna‘i witnessed a drastic drop in visitors—down 24.5%—and total visitor spending decreased by 81.4%, with only 11 hotels rooms on the entire island currently in operation.

Arrival Breakdown for Other Islands

All four larger Hawaiian Islands saw growth in arrivals: Hawai‘i Island, up 5.6%; O‘ahu, up 3.1%; and Kaua‘i, up 2.7%, contributing to visitor days and visitor expenditure growth on all four islands.

Islandwide Arrivals and Spending

Islandwide, July was another strong month of visitor arrivals and spending growth. July 2015 turned out to be the busiest month on record, increasing by 5.6% with 816,345 visitors arriving by air or cruise ship.

Most major market areas experienced increased arrivals, led by a 7.2% jump in visitors from the US West market (23,681 more visitors than last year) and US East market (up 4.9%, with 8,653 more visitors). The volume of visitors from Canada and Japan grew 9.5% and 2.6%, respectively.

Despite the gain in visitor arrivals, only the US West market saw higher personal daily spending (up 4.3% to $162 per person per day) in July 2015. Total expenditures by the US West market increased 10.8% to $539.1 million); Canadian visitor spending increased 3.6% to $47.3 million; Japanese visitor expenditures declined 5.4 percent to $194.6 million. The US East visitor expenditures of $382.4 million (down .4%) was similar to 2014.

Year-to-date 2015

Through the first seven months of 2015, arrivals rose 4.2 percent and visitor spending increased to $9 billion (up 3.6%). Growth in arrivals from US West (up 8.4%) and U.S. East (up 2.3%), balanced fewer visitors from Japan (-1.4%).

Expenditures by US West (up 7.9% to $3.2 billion) and Canadian (up 3.6% to $717.2 million) visitors increased, but US East (down 1.2% to $2.3 billion) and Japanese (down 10.1% to $1.2 billion) visitor expenditures declined compared to the first seven months of 2014.

Maui (up 6%), Hawai‘i Island (up 5.3%), Kaua‘i (up 4.9%) and O‘ahu (up 2.7%) saw growth in arrivals compared to year-to-date 2014.

Higher daily spending contributed to increased visitor expenditures on Maui (up 7.2% to $2.6 billion) and Kaua‘i (up 16.3% to $981 million). Visitor expenditures on O‘ahu ($4.2 billion) and Hawai‘i Island ($1.1 billion) were comparable to a year ago.

Current monthly visitor statistics can be viewed online.