Hawaii's tourism economy continues to improve, with monthly visitor spending exceeding $1 billion in July and August, the first time since 2008 that spending has topped the $1 billion mark. A sharp increase in Canadian visitors contributed to the successful summer for the state.
Visitor spend in August was up 30% year over year, due to higher average daily visitor spending and an 11.8% increase in total visitor arrivals to 680,496 visitors.
Total arrivals by air rose 11.4%from August 2009 to 677,885 visitors, the ninth consecutive month of positive growth in air visitor arrivals since December 2009. All top four visitor markets reported increased arrivals compared to August 2009, led by Canada (+24.7%), U.S. West (+13.6%), U.S. East (+8.8%), and Japan (+1.9%).
For the first eight months of 2010, total visitor days for all visitors grew 7.4% compared to year-to-date 2009, while total arrivals rose 7% to 4,760,314 visitors.
Total visitor expenditures for the first eight months of 2010 were $7.5 billion, an increase of 12.7% compared to the first eight months of 2009, according to preliminary statistics released by the Hawai'i Tourism Authority.
Tourism continues to be the largest single source of revenue generated by export for Hawaii and the state’s largest employing industry, supporting more than 150,000 jobs.
