For years, Hawaiʻi seemed to be pushing for a new vision of tourism: fewer visitors who would spend more money, stay longer and leave less of a footprint on the islands. Decades of overcrowded beaches and favorite local spots being overrun by outsiders had soured local sentiment toward visitors before the pandemic. 

Seven years after Hawaiʻi hit a record 10.5 million visitors, it would seem the mission has been accomplished. 

Preliminary figures from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism show on average, fewer visitors than last year — nearly a million less than the pre-pandemic peak — while spending is up per person. Travelers are also staying for noticeably fewer days, but tourism officials today are not celebrating. 

Industry insiders say that the spending is more of a reflection of inflation than the result of an orchestrated plan, and they caution the shift toward so-called “high-value” travelers does not eliminate the sector’s challenges. A weakening Japanese market, increased competition from other beach destinations, and broader concerns about the impacts of tourism locally all raise questions about what sustainable growth in the industry should look like, and whether Hawaiʻi should be a place only for visitors who can afford to vacation here. 

International travel has been hit especially hard. Japanese visitors, on whom Hawaiʻi’s tourism industry has long relied, remain down by 60% compared to 2019, before the pandemic. Canadian travel remains down by two-thirds, in part due to a boycott in response to President Donald Trump launching a trade war with Canada and threatening the country’s sovereignty.

Domestic visitors, particularly those from the West Coast, continue to make up the largest share of arrivals at around 80%. 

“That’s frightening, a million fewer nights,” Kekoa McClellan, principal at The McClellan Group and former spokesperson for the American Hotel and Lodging Association, said of the overall downturn. “In our strategy of trying to get more out of tourists, we’ve effectively made it too expensive.” 

Visitors staying for less time is “kind of disturbing,” said Jennifer Chun, director of research at Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority, in part, because it does not distribute money the way longer trips do. With fewer nights, visitors are less likely to leave Oʻahu, impacting neighbor islands. Hotels still collect their nightly rates, she said, but smaller retailers and businesses that depend on tourists sticking around after hitting all the main attractions are the ones that are feeling the brunt. 

The average visitor in July spent $296 a day and stayed for 7.59 days, down from 8.83 days the same time last year. Industry insiders caution that the rise in per-person spending is not entirely a sign of wealthier clientele. Much of it, they say, reflects how much more expensive Hawaiʻi has become to visit. 

According to the state’s latest Hotel Performance Report, the average daily room rate reached $398 a night, up 3.6% compared to a year earlier. Vacation rentals, which have declined significantly in numbers as the islands’ revolted against overtourism, have also seen a sharp increase, reaching $543 a night in July, a 14.5% jump compared to a year earlier. 

Taxes have climbed as well. Hawaiʻi’s new green fee brought the state’s transient accommodation tax to 11%. Combined with the 3% county transient accommodations tax and 4.5% general excise tax, taxes on lodging can reach nearly 20% of the entire bill. 

Caroline Anderson, interim president of the Hawaiʻi Tourism Agency, told Civil Beat last year that Hawaiʻi has long been a place for middle-class families to celebrate major life moments. That may be slowly slipping out of reach. 

Naoko Joko was strolling around Ala Moana with her daughter Yura, who is a college student in Yokohama, Japan, on a recent weekday afternoon. Naoko, wearing a tan jumpsuit from Kahulale’a — a higher end Hawaiʻi clothing company — while clutching a Gucci purse, made their family’s customary first stop for a bite to eat at Eggs ‘n Things after flying in from Fukuoka. 

She has been to Hawaiʻi 20 times over the course of her lifetime, and always stays at a Timeshare at the Hilton Waikīkī that she took over from her parents after they passed away. 

Renting a car, she noticed on her recent trips, has especially multiplied in price. But that hasn’t deterred her from continuing to visit the place she has vacationed since she was a little girl. Price hasn’t been a burden. 

“We’re very fortunate,” she said. “We don’t have to think about that much.”  

Her daughter sees it differently. Yura said Hawaiʻi is a place for family vacations, not somewhere she would travel to with friends. 

“It’s too expensive,” she laughed. “You have to be rich if you want to visit Hawaiʻi.” 

A More Expensive Hawaiʻi

The push towards higher-spending, lower-impact tourism grew out of a reckoning that predates the pandemic. 

After years of what critics describe as extractive growth, strained infrastructure, and Native Hawaiians and other locals being priced out of their own homes at the price of tourism, the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority shifted its strategic plan towards “destination management.”  

“We need to create something deeper than sun, sand and surf,” said Carmela Resuma, deputy administrator with Kilohana, the tourism division of the Hawaiian Council. 

The goal now is to attract a “high-value visitor that comes and wants to experience culture in an authentic way and be respectful,” she added, but “the current challenge is how do you market to that demographic while making sure that we maintain a level of equity, so that it’s not only the people who have an immense amount of funds that are able to visit here?” 

The thought echoes in a 2025 report about how industry leaders see tourism, by the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization, or UHERO. Researchers drew from 19 confidential interviews with senior executives in the tourism industry. 

The analysis found that residents are more open to limits on visitor numbers, while industry leaders want to avoid reducing total visitor counts by doing a better job at managing tourists. Regenerative tourism is supported in principle by all groups, but industry leaders said that there was low visitor awareness and inconsistent definitions.

The report also touched on an important point — the high cost of living, in part, driven up by the tourism industry, makes it harder for the people who help sustain it. One hotel operator told researchers that they converted their least desirable hotel rooms into dorm rooms for their hotel workers. 

Local sentiment, meanwhile, has been trending towards recovery but remains far below where it once stood. Last year, 58% said that tourism has brought more benefits than problems, compared to 49% in 2021, and 80% a decade earlier.

The change in sentiment toward tourism has coincided with counties enforcing zoning codes prohibiting short-term vacation rentals in residential areas. The downside for tourists is fewer low-cost accommodations. Even many Airbnbs that are still operating are as expensive as hotels. 

Where Are All The Japanese? 

Originally from Mie Prefecture in Japan, Kensuke Suzuki moved to Hawaiʻi during the pandemic to be closer to his mother, who won the green card lottery. He has since amassed a following chronicling his life on YouTube, garnering more than 80,000 subscribers. 

Suzuki, known as Chansuu online, makes videos catered towards Japanese who are considering visiting Hawaiʻi. He has a video on whether shopping at the Waikele Outlet is actually still cheaper with the current exchange rate, and another on restaurants with good happy hour deals. 

During the day, he is a private tour guide for Japanese travelers. He says that his clientele now skews older and have been to Hawaiʻi many times before. Data shows that 7 out of 10 Japanese visitors in July were repeat travelers, and that they spent more on lodging and food and beverage, and less on entertainment and recreation. For the few younger visitors, what he described as “lanai drinking” has become popular — instead of eating out, buying poke and Aloha Beer at Foodland and eating it in their rooms. 

Hawaiʻi, once a marker of success for a father who could afford to take his young family on vacation, is no longer the dream destination it once was, he said. “I love Hawaiʻi and I want more people to come, but if you ask the average person, would you want to pay a lot of money just to come to Hawaiʻi? Honestly, there aren’t many compelling reasons I can name right now,” he said. 

Ted Kubo, the CEO of JTB-Hawaii, the largest travel agency in Japan, agreed. 

“Hawaiʻi was the love of pretty much all segments of the tourists in Japan, whether young or family or elderly,” he said. Now, because of “cost, the competitions, and all the circumstances” attracting visitors is becoming more difficult, he added. 

For the same reasons that Americans are flocking to Japan, Japanese are struggling to travel abroad. The Japanese yen has declined significantly against the U.S. dollar while local salaries stay stagnant in a flattening economy. $1 was equivalent to 110 Japanese yen in 2019. Currently, it is equivalent to 156 Japanese yen. 

Popular Japanese travel blogs circulate tips on how to enjoy Hawaiʻi without spending too much money: a stroll along Waikīkī beach, or sipping coffee on a lanai overlooking the ocean. Others focus on sticker shock at the grocery store, noting that a single head of lettuce can cost an astronomical 580 yen, the price of a bowl of ramen at a mom-and-pop shop in Osaka. 

“It’s important to shift away and diversify the tourism market outside of Japan,” Chun, of the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority, said. “We cannot just rely on one market because you need a backup if something happens.”

But the Japanese financial market is not the only reason for the visitor decline. The trend of fewer young Japanese pushing to go abroad is a frequent topic covered by media in Japan. Only 18% of Japanese citizens hold a passport, according to Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, roughly 24% less than in 2019. In contrast, roughly 1 in 2 Americans hold a passport.

After spending the afternoon surfing, Ami Saito sunbathed on the sand at Waikīkī. She had flown to Honolulu alone from Tokyo on the low-cost airline Zip Air and was staying for free with a friend who attends the University of Hawaiʻi. 

In her suitcase were microwavable rice packets and curry pouches from Muji, a popular Japanese retailer selling consumer goods. 

“Everything here costs too much,” she said. 

It was her first trip to Hawaiʻi and although she found the beaches beautiful, she said she would not have come at all if not for the place to stay. She’s been to Phuket and Bali, where the beaches are just as nice, but considerably cheaper, she added. 

The UHERO report addresses the competition: “Many of the attributes that once set Hawai‘i apart—its natural beauty, brand recognition, and reputation for safety—no longer guarantee long-term competitiveness,” the report reads, stating that destinations like the Caribbean, Mexico, Southeast Asia, and mainland U.S. are now often offering high-quality experiences at lower costs. 

“Trying to stimulate first-timers is a challenge,” said Jerry Gibson, vice president of BRE Hotels & Resorts, who visits Japan three to four times a year. 

Suzuki, the YouTuber, said that it’s about selling an idea. 

“You need to create a memory for them,” he said. “Memories bring people back.”  

Along Waikīkī beach on a recent evening before sunset, Taniyuki Sato strolled hand-in-hand with his wife, a plastic pink plumeria tucked behind her ear. The newlyweds are spending five nights at a Waikīkī hotel and were looking forward to snorkeling at Hanauma Bay the following day.  

Although the exchange rate is not ideal, no weakening of the yen could have changed their honeymoon plans, Sato said. He worked hard at his office job in Miyagi to save up for this trip as a first-time visitor. 

His wife, Marin – whose name means “of the sea” – was named after the special time her parents had on their honeymoon, and he wanted to recreate a version of that same memory. 

A honeymoon his in-laws had in Hawaiʻi.