A humpback whale surfaces as the Island Star passes by near McGregor Point on Feb. 15. The whale looked to be part of a mother-calf pair. Whales continue to be one of the most popular draws in the winter for Maui, which saw a total of 220,741 visitors in February, near-level with pre-pandemic arrivals. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Maui continued to inch ever closer to pre-pandemic visitor arrivals in February as last month’s visitor totals to the Valley Isle were less than a half percent short of February 2019 figures.

According to preliminary visitor statistics released by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism on Thursday, Maui saw 220,741 visitors in February, just a tick short at 0.4 percent less than the 221,603 who came to Maui in February 2019. Last month’s totals also were up 14.2 percent over February 2022 when 193,232 visitors arrived.

Visitor spending last month on Maui was also up from last year and pre-pandemic levels, with visitors shelling out $540.1 million last month.

This is up 34.1 percent from February 2022, when visitors spent $402.8 million, and up 30.7 percent versus February 2019 when visitors spent $413.2 million.

The average daily census on Maui was 66,332 visitors last month, up 8.4 percent compared to the average daily census of 61,218 in February 2022 but down 1.1 percent versus February 2019, when the average daily census was at 67,040.

Statewide, a total of 753,750 visitors arrived in the state in February, or an increase of 19.5 percent from February 2022, when 630,647 visitors came to the state.

Last month’s statewide total was only down 3.5 percent versus February 2019 when the state saw 780,827 visitors.

“When compared to 2019, the benchmark year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this represents a 96.5 percent recovery in total visitor arrivals from February 2019,” according to a news release from DBEDT on Thursday.

Visitors spent $1.64 billion last month in the state, an increase of 25 percent from the $1.31 billion spent in February 2022 and up 18 percent versus the $1.39 billion spent in February 2019.

DBEDT Director Chris Sadayasu said in the news release that the visitor number recovery rate from pre-pandemic times has been over 90 percent every month during the past six months.

International visitor counts have been between 50 to 60 percent of the 2019 levels during the last five months.

“As currently scheduled, the number of flights from the U.S. mainland will reduce by 2,279 in 2023, but flights from international markets will increase by 3,445 with a net increase of 1,166,” Sadayasu said. “A slowdown in arrivals from the U.S. mainland and an increase in international arrivals is expected in 2023.”

Economists and tourism officials have pointed out that Maui is more reliant on visitors from the U.S. mainland than say, Oahu or Hawaii island.

Sadayasu said Oahu will see better improvement in 2023 due to the preferences of foreign visitors, especially Japanese visitors.

He said that in 2019, visitor statistics showed that 42.9 percent of Oahu’s visitors were foreign, while foreigners accounted for 22.8 percent of visitors in Hawaii County, 14.8 percent in Maui County and 11.6 percent in Kauai County.

Next to Maui, Hawaii island came the closest to achieving pre-pandemic visitor totals in February, with 137,444 visitors compared to 122,480 visitors or up 12.2 percent from February 2022 and down 0.7 percent versus February 2019 when the island saw 138,387 visitors.

Last month, Kauai saw 100,525 visitors, up 13.7 percent compared to 88,428 visitors in February 2022, but it was down 3.8 percent from February 2019 totals with 104,445 visitors.

Oahu saw 411,903 visitors last month, which is up 33.4 percent from February 2022 when 308,705 visitors arrived. Last month’s totals were off 9.4 percent from February 2019 which saw 454,687 visitors.

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