How do you feel about the number of Big Island tourists? Take our 30-second Poll #4

The Big Island’s economy, fueled in large part by tourism, took a nose dive with the shutdown of the visitor industry in March 2020 because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Three years later, visitors have returned to the Big Island at the level of 2019, with 148,376 during January 2023.

But the tourism numbers still lag the booming start to 2020, when 163,500 tourists came to the Big Island in January (nearly 10 percent higher than one year earlier). The island averaged 45,504 visitors per day in January 2023, just under 1,000 less per day than in 2020, less than two months before the shutdown.

The reason that tourism has not completely recovered on the Big Island is due international travel. It is the same case for the state. And, according to Chris J. Sadayasu, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, international tourism may not return to pre-pandemic levels for years to come.

Visitor spending also still lags the revenue of 2020 for the Big Island. In January 2023, tourists spent $260.1 million on the Big Island, compared to $290.5 million in January 2020.

And beyond the numbers, the shutdown of the tourism industry for seven months during 2020 showed residents what life without visitors was like for their lives and the environement. It led to a movement for more responsible tourism, and for tourists to pay more for the state resources they use.

Click here to read the most recent resident survey (Fall 2022), commissioned by the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism and 274 pages, about tourism in Hawai’i.

For Big Island Now’s weekly poll, we ask one simple questions about tourism.

Leave a comment below to let us know why you voted the way you did. Voting ends on March 24 at midnight.