Hawaiian July Tourism Posts Robust Revenues

Visitors to the Hawaiian Islands spent a total of $1.66 billion in July, an increase of 4.8% compared to a year ago, according to preliminary statistics released Thursday by the Hawaii Tourism Authority. "Hawaii's tourism industry statewide realized another robust month in July, highlighted by establishing new record high monthly totals of 939,360 visitor arrivals and 1.2 million air seats serving the state on trans-Pacific flights," said George D. Szigeti, HTA president and CEO, The Garden Island reported.

Year-to-date, Hawaii has reached nearly $11 billion in visitor spending and attracted almost six million visitors through seven months, both of which are well ahead of last year's record-setting pace, he said.

Visitors to Kauai spent $194.6 million in July, a 17.6% increase from July 2017. Through the first seven months of the year, Kauai's visitors have spent $1.2 billion, a 10.5% increase from the same time frame in 2017. Kauai had 137,641 visitors in July, a 7.3% increase over July 2017. For the year, through July, Kauai has welcomed 836,016 visitors, a 10.8% increase over the same time period in 2017.

Visitors stayed an average 7.3 days in July, spending an average $192 a day. Government continues to benefit as well from tourism's success, as $1.28 billion in state tax revenue has been generated, which is nearly 10% and $114 million more than last year at this time.

Among Hawaii's four largest visitor markets, the US West (plus 6.2% to $636.2 million), Japan (plus 7.2% to $206.4 million) and Canada (plus 18.8% to $55.3 million) reported gains in visitor spending, while growth from the US East was flat (plus 0.4% to $454.3 million) compared to a year ago.