276,485 visitors to Maui in March 2023, nearing pre-pandemic levels for the quarter

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.

The data was compiled by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

Visitor spending on Maui was $619.9 million in March 2023, compared to $458.8 million in March 2022 (+35.1%), and $443.3 million (+39.8%) in March 2019.

The average daily census on Maui was 70,111 visitors in March 2023, compared to 63,948 visitors (+9.6%) in March 2022, and 69,349 visitors (+1.1%) in March 2019.

For the first quarter of 2023, there were 725,969 visitors to Maui, compared to 616,048 visitors (+17.8%) in the first quarter of 2022, and 726,959 visitors (-0.1%) in the first quarter of 2019. For the first quarter of 2023, total visitor spending was $1.79 billion, compared to $1.29 billion (+38.8%) in the first quarter of 2022, and $1.33 billion (+34.1%) in the first quarter of 2019.

Statewide stats:

“The tourism industry was busy in March 2023 with over 900,000 visitors, the second-highest monthly figure in the last three years. While US visitor arrivals remained high, visitation from international markets was the highest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic at 182,478 arrivals and represented a 62.4% recovery from the same month in 2019,” said DBEDT Director Chis J. Sadayasu.

Japanese visitor arrivals recovered about 30% in March, and it is expected that the Japanese market will recover to 50% by the end of this year. According to Sadayasu, arrivals from Japan and Canada in March were at the highest volumes since the beginning of the pandemic.”

“The tourism statistics for March 2023 were consistent with the other public Hawai‘i data released earlier this month: job counts in the hospitality sector increased by 11%, the hotel occupancy rate increased by 1.7% points, and the transient accommodations tax increased 17.1% this March as compared with the same month in 2022,” he said.

According to preliminary visitor statistics released by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, a total of 900,800 visitors arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in March 2023, an increase of 14.2% from March 2022.

When compared to 2019, the benchmark year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this represents a 97% recovery in total visitor arrivals from March 2019.

As measured in nominal dollars, these visitors spent $1.84 billion in March 2023, up from $1.53 billion (+20.4%) in March 2022 and $1.49 billion (+23.4%) in March 2019.