Strong October for tourism: Big Island had 132,392 visitors in the last month

Visitors to the Big Island exceeded prepandemic rates last month even as international travel lags far behind.

According to data released Wednesday by the Hawaii Tourism Authority, statewide visitor arrivals in October nearly matched those from prepandemic October 2019, with a recovery rate of 97.3%. HTA reported that this is the highest recovery rate since April 2023.

The state had 774,617 visitors last month, 132,392 of whom visited the Big Island. While this number of Hawaii Island visitors exceeded October 2019’s number by 1.6%, it actually was lower than the island’s total visitors in October 2023, again by about 1.6%.

Meanwhile, those visitors spent $263 million on the island last month, a 6% increase from October 2023 and…