Some 900,800 visitors came to the Hawaiian islands in March, the second-best month for overall arrivals and the best month for international arrivals in the last three years, according to preliminary visitor statistics released today by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT).

March arrivals represented an increase of 14.2% from arrivals in March 2022. When compared to the pre-COVID March 2019, March’s arrivals recovery represented a 97% recovery. The visitors who came to Hawaii in March spent more on a nominal basis than visitors who came in 2022 and in 2019. Visitor spending in March reached $1.84 billion, a nominal increase of 20.4% from March 2022 and 23.4% from March 2019.

The statewide average daily census was 252,633 visitors in March 2023, up 11.4% from 226,857 visitors in March 2022 and up a scant .8% from 250,528 visitors in March 2019. The mix of visitors was still heavily domestic, but there has been improvement in international markets.

DBEDT Director Chris J. Sadayasu said in a statement, “While U.S. visitor arrivals remained high, visitation from international markets was the highest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic at 182,478 arrivals and represented a 62.4% recovery from the same month in 2019. Arrivals from Japan and Canada in March were at the highest volumes since the beginning of the pandemic.

Sadayasu added that visitor arrivals from Japan recovered about 30% in March. He said the Japanese market is expected to recover to 50% by the end of this year.

In March, some 5,431 trans-Pacific flights with 1,199,482 seats serviced the Hawaiian islands. This was a 2.5% decrease in flights and a 3.2% rise in seats from March 2022. Compared to March 2019, there was a decrease of .3% in flights and a .6% rise in seats.

During the first three months of 2023, more than 2.4 million visitors arrived. Year-to-date through March, nominal visitor spending hit $5.37 billion, up 26.8% from the first quarter of 2022, and a gain of 19.5% from the first quarter of 2019.