Visitor arrivals to Hawaii grew modestly in November, breaking a three-month cycle of declines.

However, total visitor spending continued to decline compared with a year ago, according to preliminary statistics released Thursday from the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

Some 731,233 visitors came to the Hawaiian Islands in November, up just 0.3% from November 2022. Total visitor spending, not adjusted for inflation, was $1.53 billion for the month, a 2.4% decrease from November 2022. When compared with 2019, the benchmark year for tourism before COVID-19, November arrivals had recovered to 90.4%. However, spending was 14.2% higher.

November results were mixed across the main islands and source markets.

DBEDT Director James Kunane Tokioka said in a statement, “The impact of the Maui wildfires continues to be felt in November’s figures, but with most of West Maui now reopened to tourism, there is a concerted effort to reinvigorate job opportunities and facilitate the economic recovery of Maui.”

Some 161,522 visitors came to Maui in November, marking the highest count in four months. Still, the results were down 29.9% from 2022 and 30.5% from 2019.

Visitor spending on Maui in November fell to $375.5 million, a 16.8% decline from November 2022 and a 0.6% decrease from November 2019.

Oahu received 440,049 visitors in November, up 11.9% from the same month in 2022 and down 6.1% from 2019. Visitor spending on Oahu dropped 11.5% year over year to $652.9 million, but was up 1.3% from November 2019.

Kauai had 106,907 visitors, up 5% from November 2022 and 3% from November 2019. Visitor spending was $212.7 million, up 31.6% year over year and a 56.5% increase from November 2019.

Some 135,645 visitors came to Hawaii island in November, an increase of 6.3% from November 2022 and of 3% from November 2019. Visitor spending was $262.7 million, a gain of 34.2% from November 2022 and 63.5% from November 2019.

Arrivals from Hawaii’s core U.S. West market fell to 380,672, a 7.3% year-over-year decline and a 1.4% increase from November 2019. Spending from the U.S. West was at $733.7 million in November, down 9.8% from November 2022 but up 30.1% from November 2019.

Arrivals from the U.S. East reached 152,725 visitors, a decline of 7.1% from November 2022 but an increase of 1.6% from the same month in 2019. U.S. East visitor spending rose 1% to $397.1 million from November 2022; however, it was 29.4% higher than in November 2019.

Visitors from Canada grew 2.7% year over year to 48,081 visitors but fell 5% from November 2019. November spending from Canadian visitors hit $126.8 million, a gain of 8.2% from November 2022 and 29% from November 2019.

Some 75,925 visitors came to Hawaii in November from the category “All Other International Markets,” which includes visitors from Oceania, Europe, Latin America, Guam, the Philippines and the Pacific islands. Arrivals were up 6.5% from November 2022 and down 10.4% from November 2019.

There were 62,893 visitor arrivals in November from Hawaii’s top international market of Japan, up 142.2% from 2022 but down 52.2% from pre-pandemic November 2019. Visitors from Japan spent $94.7 million in November, up 119.4% from November 2022 but down 50% from November 2019.

Tokioka said Japan’s arrivals recovery rate to pre-pandemic November 2019 was 47.8%, the highest recovery rate for Japan arrivals since April 2020.

“We maintain an optimistic outlook on the Japanese market, anticipating its continued contribution to tourism as we progress into 2024.”

Maui tourism and arrivals from Japan are still in recovery mode. Still, for the first 11 months of 2023, total visitor spending rose to $18.82 billion, a gain of 6.2% from the same period in 2022 and an increase of 17.9% from the first 11 months of 2019.

Some 8,783,688 visitors came to the state in the first 11 months of 2023, a 5% increase from the first 11 months of 2022 and a 6.9% decline from the first 11 months of 2019.