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Visitor arrivals still hovered below pre-pandemic levels in October

Spending, however, continues to be higher than in 2019

A Hawaiian Airlines passenger jet takes off from Kahului Airport Thursday afternoon. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Visitor arrivals to Maui in October still did not reach pre-pandemic levels, but spending did increase nearly 14 percent from October 2019.

According to statistics released by the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism at the end of last month, Maui saw 228,071 visitors in October, down 4.2 percent from 238,043 visitors in October 2019. Visitor spending was $431.2 million in October compared to $379.8 million in October 2019, up 13.5 percent.

The average daily census on Maui of 58,924 visitors in October was down 1.2 percent from 59,620 visitors in October 2019.

Statewide, 757,182 visitors arrived in the islands in October, still lower than pre-pandemic levels, though DBEDT said it is a 95.1 percent recovery from the same month in 2019.

Visitors to the state in October spent $1.53 billion, an increase of 15.1 percent compared to the $1.33 billion reported for October 2019.

“The October visitor statistics indicates that our tourism industry continues towards a positive recovery due to a strong U.S. market with total arrivals from all markets year-to-date at 88.6 percent of the same period 2019 level with spending at $15.8 billion so far this year,” said DBEDT Director Mike McCartney in a news release.

On Maui, through the first 10 months of this year, there were 2,422,885 visitors to the Valley Isle, compared to 2,552,155 visitors, or down 5.1 percent from the first 10 months of 2019.

But for the first 10 months of this year, total visitor spending was $4.70 billion compared to $4.24 billion in the first 10 months of 2019, up 10.9 percent.

Like Maui, Oahu still did not reach pre-pandemic visitor numbers as that island saw 390,845 visitors in October, down 16.7 percent from October 2019.

But visitor spending was up at $664.2 million, up 10 percent from three years ago.

Kauai and Hawaii island both surpassed pre-pandemic levels in visitor arrivals in October.

Kauai saw 109,158 visitors, which was up 6.3 percent from October 2019. Spending was at $173 million or up 21.9 percent compared to three years ago.

Hawaii island saw 141,283 visitors in October, which is up 8.4 percent from October 2019. Visitor spending was $224.3 million or up 26.7 percent from October 2019.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.

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