Hawai‘i Island Tourism Sees Growth in August

Visitor arrivals and spending increased on Hawai‘i Island during August, according to the latest tourism data released by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority last week.

HTA reported that visitor spending grew by 16.5% in August to more than $193 million, bolstered by an 18.4% increase in visitors to Hawai‘i Island amounting to 158.972. The majority of visitor growth was attributed to tourists from the continental U.S., with visitors from Canada and Japan declining slightly in August. The average daily census grew 14.5% to 34,202 visitors, according to HTA.

Tallying up the year thus far, visitor spending on Hawai‘i Island declined by 6.3% to $1.57 billion through August, while visitor arrivals remained about the same compared to a year ago.

Statewide, visitors spent a total of $1.5 billion during August—an increase of 6.3% compared with last year. HTA noted that visitor data in August 2018 was significantly impacted by safety concerns related to Hurricane Lane and the Kīlauea eruption.

Total arrivals throughout the islands increased 9.8% to 928,178 visitors in August. All visitors arrived by air travel as no out-of-state cruise ships visited Hawai‘i during August. The statewide average daily census in August was 253,855, up 7.6% from last year.

HTA reported that tourism dollars from the Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT) helped fund numerous community events and initiatives across the state in August including the Okinawan Festival, Duke’s OceanFest, the AVPFirst youth volleyball clinics, the Kauai Marathon & Half Marathon and the Emma Farden Sharpe Hula Festival.