April brings highest visitor recovery rate since pandemic

Some 827,537 visitors came to the Hawaiian islands in April, the best month for overall arrivals since the pandemic began, according to preliminary visitor statistics released today by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

April arrivals represented an increase of 1.1% from arrivals in April 2022. When compared to the pre-COVID March 2019, March’s arrivals recovery represented a 97.4% recovery. The visitors who came to Hawaii in April spent more on a nominal basis than visitors who came in 2022 and in 2019. Visitor spending in April topped $1.72 billion, a nominal increase of 8% from April 2022 and 30.7% from April 2019.

The statewide average daily census was 236,661 visitors in April 2023, up -.1% from April 2022 and up a scant 1.3% from April 2019. The mix of visitors was still heavily domestic, but there has been improvement in international markets.

In April some 5,014 trans-Pacific flights with 1,085,186 seats serviced the Hawaiian islands. This was a 3% decrease in flights and a .1 % decline in seats from April 2022. Compared to April 2019, there was a decrease of .3% in flights and a 2.4% decline in seats.

During the first four months of 2023, more than 3.27 million visitors arrived — a 16.4% increase over visitors during the first four months of 2022, but a 3% drop from the first four months of 2019.

Year-to-date through April, nominal visitor spending hit $7.09 billion, up 21.7% from the first four months of 2022, and a gain of 22% from the first four months of 2019.