2016 Demographics for THE ISLAND OF HAWAI‘I

2016 was a good year the Big Island of Hawai’i.

Spending by visitors that came by plane to the island of Hawai‘i increased by 13.9 % to $2,090,000,000 in 2016. (Yup, that’s a “B”)

People arriving onto the island in 2016 was up 2.3 % from last year to 1,549,943 visitors.

People’s daily budget was higher in 2016 to $180 per person compared to 2015 at $160 per person. Here is what people spent their money on:

Lodging ($74),
Food and beverage ($36),
Transportation ($31),
Entertainment and Recreation ($18) and
Shopping ($15)

The average number of visitors on the island daily grew 1.4 % to 31,845 visitors present on any given day. Here is how it breaks down:

U.S. West Coast (42.1%),
U.S. East coast (27%),
Japan (9.2%),
Canada (5.8%),
Asia (4.8%),
Oceania (3.7%) and
Europe (3.1%)

64.7 percent have been to the state previously while 35.3
percent were first-time visitors in 2016.

People tour the island in three forms:

People making their own travel arrangements (73%),
Group Tours (6.7%) or
Package Trips (25.2%)

Most people that visited the island stayed in a Hotel, here is how lodging broke down in 2016:

59.4% of visitors to the island of Hawai‘i stayed in hotels,
Condos (17.8%),
Rental Homes (12.5%),
Timeshares (10.3%) and with
Friends or Ohana (10%)

Why People come to the Big Island:

80.7% to go on vacation,
8.6% came to visit friends or Ohana,
6.2% came for meetings, conventions or prizes and
5.1% came for their honeymoon (That’s a lot!)

Hilo Demographics (Windward side):

There were 550,524 air plane visitors to Hilo in 2016. The average daily number of visitors to Hilo was 6,306 visitors every day. 33.9% came from the West Coast of the US, 30.2% came from the East Coast, Japan had 8.5% of the visitors, Asia at 6.2%, Oceania at 5.9%, Canada at 5.4% and Europe at 4.5%.

Kona Demographics (Leeward side):

Arrivals from airplanes to Kona was up 2.9% to 1,325,981 visitors in 2016. The number of visitors here on any given day was up 1.2% to 25,539 visitors EVERY DAY. 43.7 percent were from West coast of the U.S., 26.9% from the U.S. Eas coastt, 8.2% were from Japan, 6.1% came from Canada, 4.5% from Asia and 3.5% from Oceania.