LIHUE — Visitors to the Hawaiian Islands spent a total of $1.28 billion in September, an increase of 6.4 percent compared to a year ago, according to preliminary statistics released Tuesday by the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
Kauai had 102,041 visitors in September, up 4.1 percent from September 2017. Through the first nine months of the year, Kauai has had 1.05 million visitors, an increase of 9 percent over the same time frame last year.
Those visitors spent $153.8 million in September, up 21.5 percent from September 2017. For the year through September, Kauai visitor spending totaled $1.55 billion, an increase of 12.4 percent over the same time frame in last year.
Statewide, visitor spending increased from U.S. West (up 2.5 percent to $460.2 million), U.S. East ( up 7.9 percent to $297.3 million) and all other international markets (plus 20.5 percent to $297.9 million) in September,.
Total visitor arrivals grew to 724,863 (plus 3.5 percent) in September compared to a year ago, with total visitor days increasing by 5.8 percent. The average daily census or number of visitors on any given day in September, was 209,432, up 5.8 percent compared to last year.
More visitors came from U.S. East (up 12 percent) and U.S. West (up 5 percent), while fewer visitors arrived from Canada (down 6.2 percent) and Japan (down 4 percent).
In September, Oahu recorded increases in both visitor spending (up 12.2 percent to $638.9 million) and visitor arrivals (plus 3.1 percent to 462,079) versus a year ago. Visitor spending on Maui was comparable to a year ago (up 0.4 percent to $334.4 million) while visitor arrivals increased (up 5.9 percent to 212,357). The island of Hawaii recorded decreases in both visitor spending (down 14.1 percent to $140.5 million) and visitor arrivals (down 14 percent to 102,635).
