Spring break brought more travelers to Hawaii in April, but arrivals still below 2019
Spring break travel demand helped bring 484,071 mostly domestic arrivals to Hawaii in April, according to preliminary statistics released by the Hawaii Tourism Authority today.
April visitor arrivals were more than 10,000 times better than April 2020, the worst month of the pandemic for travel. But even with the gains, last month was still 43% below April 2019, a pre-pandemic time when 849,397 visitors came to Hawaii.
On any given day in April, HTA estimates there were 151,386 visitors statewide. Oahu had the highest daily census with 60, 261 visitors on any given day. But Maui wasn’t far behind with a daily visitor census of 51,264.
In comparison in April 2019, Oahu’s daily visitor census was 109,204, while Maui’s was 64,523.
The average daily visitor census this April didn’t change as much for the rest of the state, except for Kauai, which didn’t rejoin Safe Travels Hawaii until April 5. That contributed to a drop in Kauai’s average daily visitor census to 13,165. In April 2019, Kauai’s average daily visitor census was 25,330.
On any given day this April there were 25,663 visitors on Hawaii island as compared to 30,444 in April 2019.
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There were 422 visitors on average per day on Molokai this April, as compared to 633 in April 2019. The average daily count of visitors on Lanai this April was 612 as compared to 609 in April 2019.
HTA tallied visitor spending in April at more than $811 million. HTA said spending comparisons weren’t available in April of 2020, but estimated last month’s spending total was down 38.4 % from the $1.32 billion spent in April 2019.
Maui, which has the state’s highest lodging costs, brought in the most visitor spending at $316 million, followed by Oahu at nearly $300 million.
Oahu’s overall spending in April was still less than half of the $627 million that it brought to the state in April 2019. On the other hand, Maui’s expenditures in April almost reached 80% of the $394 million that it earned in April 2019.
Hawaii island at almost $130 million, down 15% from $154 million in April 2019. And Kauai is at nearly $66 million, a 51% decrease from the $134 that it reached in April 2019.
