Total visitor arrivals to Hawaii dropped 4.8% year over year to just over 763,000 travelers in May, according to the latest figures from Hawaii's Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT).Meanwhile, statewide visitor spending sunk 4% year over year in May to $1.62 billion, the department said in a June 27 statement.
Statewide visitor arrivals and spending figures have now dropped year over year in each of the first five months of 2024, according to department data.
"Though the U.S. market is weakening, arrivals in May 2024 were still 4.5% higher than the same month in 2019," DBEDT director James Kunane Tokioka said in the statement. "The recovery from Japan was much lower than expected due to the depreciation of the Japanese currency. The 46,124 visitors from Japan in May were the lowest during the past 12 months."
Year to date, total visitor arrivals to Hawaii dropped 4.1% year over year to just over 3.9 million travelers through the first five months of 2024, according to department figures.
Total statewide visitor spend dropped 4.9% year over year through the end of May to $8.35 billion.
Total visitor arrivals from Hawaii's largest source market, U.S. states west of the Rockies, sunk 8.4% year over year to 1.94 million travelers through the first five months of 2024, according to DBEDT figures. And total spend by U.S. West visitors vacationing in Hawaii dropped 6.4% year over year through May to a total of $3.8 billion.
Arrivals and spending figures continue to lag significantly on Maui after the devastating wildfire last August in Lahaina. Department officials said total visitor arrivals to Maui plunged 24.3% year over year through the first five months of 2024. And total visitor spending on Maui is off more than 23% through the end of May.