November's tourism numbers — released by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism on Dec. 31 — show that the number of visitors to Hawaii is nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, although cruise ship arrivals continue to lag.
The preliminary numbers from DBEDT show that there were 770,940 total visitor arrivals to Hawaii in November, a 95.3% recovery from the 809,076 arrivals in November 2019. That year remains Hawaii's high water mark for visitations. Policymakers restricted travel to the Islands, and within the state, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020.
Here are a few more notable numbers from DBEDT:
- 5.3% — The increase of total visitor arrivals to the Islands compared to November 2023.
- $1.55 billion — Total visitor spending in November, measured in nominal dollars, or dollars not adjusted for inflation, a 2% increase over the prior November.
- 762,662 — The number of visitors who arrived to the Islands by air in November 2024. That's 5.7% higher than the 721,342 visitors who arrived by air in November 2023 but 3.8% lower than the 792,547 visitors who came by air in November 2019.
- 8,278 — The number of visitors that arrived in Hawaii via out-of-state cruise ships in November, 24.3% less than the 10,936 visitors who came by cruise ship during the same month in 2023 and nearly half of the 16,529 visitors that arrived by cruise ships in November 2019.
- 60,684 — The number of visitors from Japan, which is 4.3% lower than the 63,416 visitors in November 2023 and 53.9% lower than the 131,536 Japanese visitors in November 2019.
- 8.78 million — The total number of visitors arriving to the Islands in the first 11 months of 2024. That’s just 0.2% lower than the 8,795,159 visitors who arrived in the first 11 months of 2023 but a decline of 6.9% when compared to the 9,434,232 visitors who arrived during the same pre-pandemic period in 2019.
More information and data from DBEDT can be found online here.
Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
