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Vistior arrivals and spending continued growing in April, which marks the start of a traditionally slower spring travel period in Hawaii.
In April, the state welcomed 669,959 visitors or 3.1 percent more than it did during the same month last year, according to a visitor industry report released by the Hawaii Tourism Authority today. HTA does not adjust its spending for inflation so it only released the nominal spending calculation, which rose 1.8 perent to $19.1 million. A decline in the average length of stay from nearly every market save cruise ships likely contributed to average per person per day spending remaining flat at $191 per person.
Arrivals from the U.S. West, Hawaii’s core visitor market, were flat in April at 278,627 and nominal spending by these visitors fell 1 percent to $383.1 million. The U.S. East market, Hawaii’s next largest visitor group, saw arrivals rise 4.2 percent to 127,973 visitors, while nominal spending from this market rose 12.6 percent to $256.1 million.
Arrivals from Japan, Hawaii’s largest international market, grew 6.5 percent to 100,243 visitors; however, a less favorable yen to dollar exchange ratio contributed to a 12.5 percent drop in nominal spending, which fell to $154.3 million. After five months of consectutive growth, arrivals from Canada declined 7.3 percent to 42,605 visitors. Nominal visitor spending by Canadian visitors dropped 3 percent to $81.4 million. Arrivals from all other markets, whch include Asian markets outside of Japan, Oceania, Europe and Latin America, increased 16.2 percent, while nominal spending from these markets rose 3.1 percent to $218.9 million. Cruise ship visitors decreased 3.98 percent to 29,752.
Total air seats for April rose 9.5 percent to 891,790 seats, with increases in scheduled seats from the U.S. East, Oceania, and other Asia.
For the first four months of this year, total arrivals have increased 6.1 percent to nearly 2.8 million visitors and nominal visitor expenditures have grown 6.3 percent to $5 billion. All four major islands, Oahu, Maui, Kauai and Hawaii island, showed growth in arrivals and total nominal spending.
