Nearly 3 Million Visitors Came to Maui in 2017, New Report Finds

The number of visitors staying on Maui in 2017 rose 4% from 2016 to 2,744,994 visitors, according to the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authorityʻs 2017 Annual Visitor Research Report. The report also states that the number of visitors that came to the state of Hawaiʻi reached a record high in 2017 at over 9 million visitors, a 5.3% rise from 2016.

The report is a collection of research on the performance, characteristics, and visitor profiles of Hawaiʻi’s tourism industry in 2017. HTA hopes the 188-page report will provide businesses and stakeholders involved in tourism with a better understanding of the industry and keeps them informed when developing new products, creating marketing strategies, and staying competitive.

Highlights of the report include profiles and detailed spending habits of visitors to the Hawaiian Islands from nine major market areas, including US West, US East, Japan, Canada, Europe, Oceania, Other Asia, Latin America, and Other markets.

The report features information that is not provided in HTA’s monthly visitor statistics, such as visitor characteristics including their reasons for visiting, accommodation choices, and whether they are visiting for the first time or returning. Visitor spending in different categories by island are also reported.

Other data provided in the report includes the air seat capacity of nonstop trans-Pacific flights to Hawaiʻi, visitor room inventory, hotel occupancy and room rates, and a profile of visitors arriving by cruise and their spending characteristics.

The report also finalized the visitor statistics totals for Hawaiʻi, both statewide and by island in 2017. Spending by visitors in Hawaiʻi, including supplemental business expenditures, totaled $16.81 billion in 2017, an 5.6 percent increase from 2016. All of the Hawaiian Islands saw increases in total visitor spending in 2017 from the year before.

When adjusted for inflation, visitor spending in Hawaiʻi totaled $14.39 billion in 2017, 3.5 percent more than in 2016. A total of 9,404,346 visitors came to the Hawaiian Islands via trans-Pacific flights or by cruise ships in 2017.

The full 2017 Annual Visitor Research Report and accompanying data tables can be found on the HTA website.