Big Island, state visitor numbers rising

The State of Hawai‘i’s Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism released its February 2023 visitor statistics report late last month.

Visitor arrivals to the Big Island (to date through February) were up 285,821 from 233,177 in 2022, or 22.6%.

The strength of domestic visitor spending remained positive for Hawai‘i’s businesses and overall economy in February 2023, with 48% growth from the U.S. West and 19.2% growth from the U.S. East compared to February 2019. Each of Hawai‘i’s four counties also saw increased spending with fewer visitors compared to February 2019.

Year-to-date, total visitor spending stayed strong at $3.53 billion compared to $3.01 billion (+17.6%) in the first two months of 2019. Domestic spending helped to offset expenditures from our key international visitor source markets which are continuing to recover at a modest pace.