Maui County welcomed 159,579 visitors in April, a decline of 9.4 percent from the 176,158 in April 2008.
That, however, was an improvement over year-to-date numbers. So far this year, Maui County has recorded 636,388 visits, a drop of more than 153,000 or 19.4 percent from early 2008.
Overall, the picture was mixed in April. Oahu and the Big Island saw small gains in head counts, while Maui and Kauai were still sharply down. The deficit of Maui visitors accounts for more than half the statewide deficit so far this year.
The numbers are tricky, however, because the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, which keeps the count, has a statewide total that is smaller than the sum of the county totals, because a tourist who visits several islands is recorded at each stop.
The overall impact on tourism can also be measured by total visitor-days. That number is down 10.3 percent through April, compared with the statewide head count, down 11.5 percent.
For the first four months, Kauai has taken the biggest hit, down 20.7 percent to a total of 292,136 visitors.
Maui County comes next. Maui island is down 14.5 percent in visitors who came to Maui only - 386,903 - compared with minus 19.4 percent counting all visitors, including those who went to several islands.
Molokai tourism has dropped out of sight, down 40.3 percent overall, with a mere 2,533 Molokai-only visitors so far this year. Lanai is down 37.5 percent, with only 3,289 Lanai-only visitors so far.
The Big Island is down 15.8 percent to 419,252 in total visits, and Oahu is down 10.3 percent to 1.3 million total visits.
That puts Maui County's visits of 789,732 at about 55 percent of Oahu's 1,440,537, but well under the combined Kauai-Hawaii total of 866,288.
For many years, Oahu has counted as two Mauis, while Maui has equaled the other Neighbor Islands. More recently, Kauai and Hawaii combined have been gaining somewhat compared with Maui, and the gap is widening.
Not only were there fewer visitors in the islands in April, they were spending much less. Average daily spending per visitor (not counting airfare) dropped $26 to $160. That knocked total visitor industry revenue down by $108.1 million compared with last April, a total of $773.4 million.
State Tourism Liaison Marsha Wienert said spending reflected steep discounting, especially in package vacations.
She also said that from here on out, "statistical comparisons between 2009 and 2008 will better reflect the health of the visitor industry in Hawaii," because April marked the first anniversary of the departure of Aloha and ATA airlines.
Airline load factors in April were 85 percent, a good but not great number, but only slightly below last year's usage.
The steep discounting is encouraging travel to the islands, Wienert said, but the head count is not the key number now. "The health of the visitor industry and our economy will be dependent on visitor spending and not necessarily on visitor arrivals," she said.
* Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com.
