Hawaii’s 2016 tourism business is off to a booming start with April becoming the third month this year that the state has set a visitor arrivals record.
The Hawaiian Islands welcomed 700,573 visitors in April, an increase of 3.4% over the same 30-day period last year and the most ever for the destination in April, according to preliminary estimates recently released by the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA).
George Szigeti, the HTA president and CEO, said a boost in cruise business and arrivals from Hawaii’s largest international market helped the destination reach the April visitors peak.
“The rescheduling of some cruises to arrive in April brought in an influx of visitors that would not have occurred otherwise,” he said in a statement. “And we realized a spike in visitors from Japan the last week of April for the start of the Golden Week holidays.”
Visitor arrival totals for those traveling to Hawaii onboard a cruise ship in April surged 85% year over year to more than 22,000 people, and Japanese arrivals climbed 4.5% to more than 100,000 travelers.
Domestic visitor numbers, however, decreased slightly in April when compared to the same month in 2015. Arrivals from Hawaii’s largest source market, U.S. states west of the Rockies, slipped less than one percentage point, to 294,264 travelers. U.S. East visitor totals also fell less than a percentage point to 133,262 people.
“For the first time in nearly two years, monthly visitor arrivals from our largest market, the U.S. West, did not surpass the previous year’s total in April,” Szigeti said. “Arrivals from our second-largest market, the U.S. East, also came in behind last year’s total for the first time in six months.”
Meanwhile, arrivals from Canada sank 8.6% in April to just over 41,000. But Szigeti noted that increases from other international destinations, excluding Japan and Canada, helped offset some of the year-over-year declines from North America.
Despite the record-breaking arrivals in April, total visitor expenditures were off, slipping 1.1% to $1.1 billion during the month. Domestic spending was something of a mixed bag, with an increase of 6.8% coming from U.S. East travelers while expenditures from the U.S. West decreased 1.5%.
Total spending by Canadian travelers in April across Hawaii plunged 15.5% year over year.
Still, Szigeti noted that through the first four months of this year, the Aloha State’s tourism industry remains on an impressive course.
“Visitor statistics year to date show that Hawaii remains ahead of last year’s record-setting pace for both arrivals and expenditures,” he said.