Total visitor arrivals, spending declined for 3rd straight month in October compared to 2022

Both visitor arrivals and visitor spending declined for the third straight month compared to 2022, as Hawaiʻi’s visitor industry continued to feel the impact of the August Lahaina wildfires, according to preliminary statistics from the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

On Maui, a phased reopening of West Maui to visitors began on Oct. 8, 2023, while Historic Lahaina Town and the surrounding areas remained closed amid continuing relief efforts.

• In October 2023, there were 132,909 visitors on Maui, down significantly compared to October 2022 (230,512 visitors, -42.3%) and October 2019 (238,043 visitors, -44.2%), DBEDT reports.
• Visitor spending on Maui was $326.2 million in October 2023, much lower than October 2022 ($435.9 million, -25.2%) and October 2019 ($379.8 million, -14.1%).
• The average daily census on Maui was 35,526 visitors in October 2023, compared to 59,372 visitors (-40.2%) in October 2022 and 59,620 visitors (-40.4%) in October 2019.

Year to date data through October was also released for Maui:

• In the first 10 months of 2023, there were 2,118,827 visitors to Maui, compared to 2,429,699 visitors (-12.8%) in the first 10 months of 2022 and 2,552,155 visitors (-17.0%) in the first 10 months of 2019.
• For the first 10 months of 2023, total visitor spending was $4.87 billion, compared to $4.79 billion (+1.8%) in the first 10 months of 2022 and $4.24 billion (+15.0%) in the first 10 months of 2019.

Statewide data highlights show a dip in both arrivals and spending.

A total of 734,582 visitors came in October 2023, down 3.2% from October 2022, according to DBEDT data. When compared to pre-pandemic 2019, this represents a 92.3% recovery in total visitor arrivals from October 2019.

As measured in nominal dollars, total visitor spending was $1.51 billion in October 2023, a decrease from October 2022 ($1.54 billion, -2.0%), but higher than October 2019 ($1.33 billion, +13.8%).

In October 2023, a total of 4,600 transpacific flights with 1,015,687 seats serviced the Hawaiian Islands, compared to 4,572 flights (+0.6%) with 974,071 seats (+4.3%) in October 2022 and 4,807 flights (-4.3%) with 1,063,333 seats (-4.5%) in October 2019.