Hawai‘i Island Tourism Sees Decline in April 2019
Visitor arrivals and visitor spending on Hawai‘i Island saw significant declines during April 2019, according to the latest Hawai‘i visitor statistics released Thursday by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority (HTA).
Spending decreased by more than 20% on Hawai‘i Island compared with last year to $154.9 million; visitors fell by more than 14% to 131,499 during April.
The total spending by visitors statewide during April was tallied at $1.33 billion in April 2019, a decrease of 6.2% year-over-year, as reported by HTA.
HTA also reported that revenue from the Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT) helped to fund events and initiatives statewide in April, including the Merrie Monarch Festival, Celebration of the Arts Festival, Ka‘u Coffee Festival, Honolulu Biennial and the LEI (Leadership, Exploration, and Inspiration) Program.
Throughout the state, average daily visitor spending was down (-9.2% to $188 per person) in April
year-over-year. Visitors from U.S. East (-7.6% to $201), U.S. West (-6.4% to $172), Canada (-4.0% to $153) and all other international markets (-18.1% to $229) spent less per day, while daily spending by visitors from Japan (-0.1% to $232) was similar to a year ago.
A total of 1,112,200 trans-Pacific air seats serviced the Hawaiian Islands in April, up 2.5% from a year ago. Growth in air seats from U.S. West (+4.3%), U.S. East (+2.5%) and Japan (+0.7%) offset declines from other Asian markets (-12.5%) and Oceania (-6.5%). Seats from Canada (+0.3%) were comparable to April 2018.