Research & Economic Analysis

2nd Quarter 2024 Report

Download Tourism Data Tables (spreadsheet)

International visitor arrivals continued to increase, while domestic visitor arrivals decreased in the first quarter of 2024.

The total number of visitor arrivals by air decreased 59,149 or 2.5 percent in the first quarter of 2024, compared to the same quarter of 2023 (Table D-2). The total average daily census decreased by 14,880 or 6.0 percent in the quarter. In 2023, total visitor arrivals by air increased 349,804 or 3.8 percent, while the average daily census increased 2,356 or 1.0 percent from the previous year.

In the first quarter of 2024, total visitor arrivals on domestic flights decreased 132,069 or 6.6 percent compared to the same quarter of 2023 (Table D-3). In 2023, domestic arrivals were down 293,888 or 3.6 percent from the previous year.

Arrivals on international flights increased 72,920 or 18.3 percent in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the first quarter of 2023 (Table D-4). In 2023, international arrivals increased 643,692 or 71.1 percent from the previous year.

In terms of major market areas, from the first quarter of 2023 to the same period of 2024, arrivals from the U.S. West decreased 75,412 or 6.1 percent (Table D-5), arrivals from the U.S. East decreased 55,979 or 8.5 percent (Table D-6), and arrivals from Japan increased 72,545 or 73.3 percent (Table D-7). In 2023, arrivals from the U.S. West were down 278,455 or 5.3 percent; arrivals from the U.S. East were down 41,976 or 1.7 percent; and Japanese arrivals were up 380,417 or 197.6 percent from the previous year.

The total average daily visitor census was down 6.0 percent or 14,880 visitors per day in the first quarter of 2024, over the same quarter of 2023 (Table D-8). The domestic average daily census decreased 8.3 percent or 17,223 visitors per day (Table D-9), while
the international average daily census increased 5.4 percent or 2,343 visitors per day (Table D-10). In 2023, the domestic average daily census decreased 9,996 or 4.8 percent; and the international average daily census increased by 12,352 or 47.6 percent from the previous year.

Nominal visitor expenditures by air totaled $5,200.0 million in the first quarter of 2024, a decrease of $150.0 million or 2.8 percent from the first quarter of 2023 (Table D-11). In 2023, visitor expenditures totaled $20,708.0 million, an increase of $1,054.4 million or 5.4 percent from the previous year.

Total airline capacity, as measured by the number of available seats flown to Hawaii, decreased 1.7 percent or 57,519 seats (Table D-12) in the first quarter of 2024, domestic seats decreased 6.7 percent or 184,045 seats (Table D-13), and international seats increased 19.8 percent or 126,526 seats (Table D-14), compared to the same quarter of 2023. In 2023, the number of total available seats increased 2.9 percent or 374,532 seats, domestic seats decreased 3.6 percent or 397,737 seats, and international seats increased 46.7 percent or 772,269 seats from the previous year.

In the first quarter of 2024, the statewide hotel occupancy rate averaged 76.5 percent, 1.4 percentage points higher than that of the same quarter of 2023 (Table D-15). In 2023, the statewide hotel occupancy rate averaged 74.7 percent, 1.1 percentage points higher than the previous year.

Readers interested in visitor statistics on a monthly basis can find them on the DBEDT website at: https://dbedt.hawaii.gov/visitor/tourism/ and those interested in daily passenger arrival data may access them at: https://dbedt.hawaii.gov/visitor/daily-passenger-counts/.