Some 919,154 visitors came to Hawaii in July, the highest monthly count of visitors since January of 2020, according to preliminary visitor statistics released today by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT).

DBEDT reported that the monthly visitor count represented a 92% recovery rate from July of 2019. There were actually more domestic visitors in Hawaii in July as compared to July 2019, especially from the U.S. West. However, international visitors in July were still down compared to July 2019, especially from Japan, which is normally Hawaii’s largest source market for international visitors.

Hawaii Tourism Authority President and CEO John De Fries said in a statement, “Travel demand from Japan is anticipated to gradually increase as we head into the fall and winter seasons, with the recent resumption of air service between Tokyo-Kona and Tokyo-Honolulu adding to the steady return of international flights.”

The visitors that came to Hawaii in July spent $1.94 billion, an increase of 14.3% from the $1.70 billion that they spent in July 2019, DBEDT said.

July’s visitors stayed an average of 9.36 days, up 4.9% from their average length of stay in July 2019.

On any given day across the state in July, there were 277,444 visitors down 3.1% from the average daily visitor census in July of 2019.

More than 5.3 million visitors came to Hawaii through the first seven months of 2022, a 13.2% decrease from the same period in 2019. However, total visitor spending through July rose 5.8% to $11.16 billion.

DBEDT Director Mike McCartney said in a statement that the state agency is not forecasting full tourism recovery until 2025.