Visitor arrivals, spending on the Big Island slightly decreases from last year

Total visitor arrivals and spending in July 2025 declined across the state compared to the same month last year.

There were 873,430 visitors spending $1.95 billion across the state last month, a decrease of 4.4% and 4.3%, respectively, from July 2024, according to preliminary statistics from the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT).

However, total visitor arrivals in July 2025 represent an 87.8% recovery compared to pre-pandemic July 2019, and total visitor spending was 15% higher than July 2019.

In July 2025, 870,795 visitors arrived by air service, mainly from the U.S. West and U.S. East. Additionally, 2,636 visitors came from two out-of-state cruise ships. In July 2024, 912,813 visitors arrived by air, a decrease of 4.6%, and 672 visitors came aboard one out-of-state cruise ship.

The average length of stay for all visitors in July 2025 was 8.84 days, compared to 8.83 days in 2024 and 8.92 days in 2019.

There were 160,231 visitors to Hawaii Island in July 2025, a decrease of 5% from 168,680 visitors in July 2024 and a decrease of 7.9% from 173,899 visitors in July 2019. 

Visitor spending was $284.7 million in 2025, $294.1 million in July 2024 and $221.3 million in July 2019. The average daily census on Hawaii Island was 38,531 visitors in July 2025, compared to 39,986 visitors in July 2024 and 39,439 visitors in July 2019.

In the first seven months of 2025 on Hawaiʻi Island, there were 1,038,106 visitors who spent $1.87 billion, compared to 1,036,574 visitors who spent $1.93 billion in the first seven months of 2024, and 1,054,260 who spent $1.38 billion in the first seven months of 2019.

Air capacity to Hawaiʻi in July 2025 included 5,185 transpacific flights with 1,153,876 seats coming to Hawaiʻi. In 2024, there were 5,445 flights with 1,202,693 seats, and in 2019, there were 5,681 flights with 1,254,165 seats.

A total of 5,790,537 visitors arrived in the first seven months of 2025, a 403-person increase from 5,720,940 visitors in the first seven months of 2024. Total arrivals declined 6.1% when compared to 6,166,392 visitors in the first seven months of 2019.

In the first seven months of 2025, total visitor spending was $12.90 billion, a 4.7% increase from $12.33 billion in the first seven months of 2024, and a 22.3% increase compared to $10.55 billion in the first seven months of 2019.

According to DBEDT Director James Kunane Tokioka, July is typically a slow month for out-of-state cruise ships to Hawaiʻi, and that was the case in July 2024 and July 2019. In July 2025, two out-of-state cruise ships visited Hawaiʻi, and each ship toured the islands twice.

Two years after the Maui wildfires, there were 235,529 visitors to Maui in July 2025, slightly fewer than July 2024 (236,245 visitors, -0.3%). The July 2025 visitor count in Maui decreased by 20.7% when compared to pre-wildfire July 2023 with 297,082 visitors. For the first seven months of 2025, there were 1,503,907 visitors on Maui, 16.2% lower than the same period in 2023 before the wildfires.

Despite decreased arrivals to Maui, Maui County hotels reported improvement in July 2025 with island-wide occupancy reaching 66.7%, up from 60.5% in July 2024.

More information on visitor numbers can be found on the DBEDT website.