#DBEDT

Statewide revenue per available room in July 2024 was $301 with average daily rate at $385 and occupancy of 78.4%.

Year-over-year, non-farm jobs have gone up by 3,900. But non-farm jobs are down 18,700 when compared to the last month prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event was a result of the Creative Industries Sector Partnership’s Career Awareness initiative, a workforce development collaboration between employers and educators.

More than 90% of visitors from all markets rated Hawai‘i as “excellent” or “above average” when it comes to being a safe and secure destination.

Since the August 2023 Maui wildfires, total visitor arrivals were down in five out of the last six months while total visitor spending recorded six consecutive months of decreases from 2023.

The State of Hawai‘i Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT) issued today the Hawai‘i Vacation Rental Performance Report for the month of November utilizing data compiled by Lighthouse Intelligence, Ltd.

The State of Hawaiʻi revised its 2023 growth projections upward to 1.9%, but lowered its 2024 projections to 1.3% due to the projected global slowdown and recovery from the Maui wildfires.

The island of Hawai‘i vacation rental supply was 209,100 available unit nights (+26.1% vs. 2022, -4.6% vs. 2019) in September. Unit demand was 93,100 unit nights (+12.0% vs. 2022, -27.2% vs. 2019), resulting in 44.5% occupancy (-5.6 percentage points vs. 2022, -13.8 percentage points vs. 2019) with ADR at $214 (-4.9% vs. 2022, +46.6% vs. 2019). Hawai‘i Island hotels reported ADR at $373 and occupancy of 66.4%.

The 2024 Creative Lab Hawai‘i Music Immersive program will open the application process on Nov. 1 for singer-songwriters who are seeking opportunities to license their works for global media and entertainment content.

Blaine Miyasato is the managing director of state government affairs at Hawaiian Airlines with nearly 40 years of experience in the airline industry. James Kunane Tokioka is the Director of the Hawai‘i State Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism.

The occupancy for Big Island vacation rentals in May was 43.5%, which is down 14.2% from a year ago and 27.8% lower than May 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

The State of Hawaiʻi’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism is developing the state’s first digital equity plan.

Visitor arrivals to the Big Island were up nearly 23% by February.

The free weekend songwriting workshop on the Big Island is dedicated to empowering young artists with a breakthrough music and mental health mentorship series called Nā Leo (The Voices) by Haku Collective. 

For Big Island Now’s weekly poll, we ask one simple questions about tourism: Is the number of visitors not enough, just right or too many?

Visitors spent $260 million on the Big Island in January 2023, according to a state report.

Overall satisfaction among visitors from Hawai‘i’s primary North American markets has continued its upward trend since the beginning of the year to rival pre-pandemic levels, state officials said.

Josh Green, the state’s ninth governor, names affordable housing, homelessness, poverty and climate change as key issues for his administration during his inauguration in Honolulu on Monday.

A total of 818,268 visitors came to the Hawaiian Islands in April 2022, representing a 96.3% recovery from April 2019 and the highest recovery rate since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hawai‘i.

The SSBCI program brings to Hawai‘i up to $62 million in federal funding to expand access to capital for small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs. Hawai‘i is among the first states in the nation to be approved for participation.