Some 889,274 visitors came to Hawaii in June, according to preliminary statistics released Thursday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

The June arrivals were a 5.5% increase from the June 2022 total. Last month’s arrivals represented a 93.9% recovery from the same month in 2019, the benchmark year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

June visitors spent $2 billion, which was 9.2% higher than the $1.83 billion spent in June 2022, and 22.7% higher than the $1.63 billion spent in June 2019, according to DBEDT data.

The statewide average daily census, the number of visitors present in the islands on any given day, was 268,857 last month, up 1.4% from 265,157 in June 2022 and down 3.3% from June 2019.

The majority of visitors arrived by air from the U.S. West and U.S. East markets, most of them repeat visitors. While the numbers for both markets were slightly lower than June 2022, total spending for each market was higher.

U.S. West visitor spending of $1.01 billion in June was 4.6% higher than $963.3 million the same month in 2022. U.S. East visitor spending rose to $672.6 million in June, 1.5% higher than $662.5 million in June 2022.

There were signs of improvement for the Japan market, with 46,753 visitors in June compared with 11,940 for the same month a year ago, representing a 291.6% increase. Still, the number was a 63.1% drop from June 2019.

“June visitor statistics indicate that our visitor industry continues a steady recovery,” said DBEDT Director James Tokioka in a news release. “The total visitor arrivals of 889,274 in June 2023 was the third- highest June in our history. Japanese arrivals in June 2023 at 46,753 was the highest since March 2020 and represented a 36.9% recovery from the same month in 2019.”

Compared with June 2022, there were also higher numbers of visitors from Canada and other international markets, including Oceania, Europe, Latin America and other parts of Asia.

Last month, 5,096 trans- Pacific flights with 1,114,054 seats serviced the Hawaiian Islands, a 0.5% increase in flights and 6.1% increase in seats from the same month in 2022. Only one out-of-state cruise ship arrived in June, bringing 3,236 visitors.

Oahu experienced the highest increase in visitor arrivals for the first half of 2023, according to Tokioka, while neighbor isles experienced higher jumps in visitor expenditures, mainly due to higher room rates.

Cruise ships brought in more than 80,000 visitors in the first half of the year, he noted, which was the third- highest figure for that span since the state began recording cruise visitors in 1999.

A total of 4,964,711 visitors arrived in Hawaii in the first half of 2023, 12% growth from 4,431,332 visitors in the first half of 2022. Compared with the 5,171,182 visitors in the first half of 2019, however, total arrivals decreased 4%.

The pre-pandemic peak month for visitor arrivals was July 2019, when some 997,872 visitors flew to Hawaii, spending a total of $1.7 billion, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority

In DBEDT’s tourism forecast, Tokioka said Japanese arrivals are expected to recover to about 50% of the 2019 level by the end of this year.