Waikiki saw lackluster summer as tourists opt for shorter vacations and neighbor islands

News admin August 30, 2026 0 Comments

Waikiki saw lackluster summer as tourists opt for shorter vacations and neighbor islands

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – New data from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism shows summer brought more visitors and more tourism spending into the state. But it’s not all good news.

The total number of visitors across the state is up 1.1 percent in July compared to last year.

But they’re not coming to Waikiki. And that is concerning for officials and businesses here.

“Waikiki still have a lot of tourists, but that doesn’t mean that like business, small business busy,” said Nina Thai, owner and designer of Angels by the Sea, which has two boutique shops in Waikiki.

One of them is in the Sheraton Waikiki hotel, which normally sees a lot of foot traffic.

“This summer, it’s much challenging,” she said. “They spend a lot of money already for hotel, for airfare, and they have really less money to spend for shopping.”

The July numbers show visitors are spending more money during shorter trips to the islands, mainly because everything costs more.

Last month, visitors statewide spent nearly $2 billion, each day shelling out $296 on average, a 17% jump from last year.

It’s a reality travelers have come to accept.

“We’re from L.A., so it’s pretty pricey out there too, so it’s not really a surprise,” said Stacey, who is spending six days in Honolulu.

But the state also lost more than a million visitor days during its busiest month of the year because people cut their vacations from nine days to seven, meaning fewer visitors out and about on any given day.

“I say about a week is, I feel like it’s good enough,” said Brandon, also visiting from L.A. “I feel like a lot of people are traveling less than before, but I don’t know why, but I feel like people are traveling less.”

Waikiki officials also noticed.

“We’re seeing a lot less of the tour companies coming in and also less conferences with what’s going on at the convention center,” said Trevor Abarzua, president and executive director of the Waikiki Business Improvement District.

While total arrival numbers are up, they’re on the neighbor islands like Maui.

As for the 1.5 square mile district that accounts for more than a third of visitor spending, advocates are trying to bring tourists back.

“If Waikiki is not healthy, then the rest of the state economy is not healthy. That affects public schools, that affects roads, that affects everything in terms of our community, not just in Waikiki, but statewide. So we really need to invest more,” Abarzua said.

And as businesses look forward to the holiday season, they’re hoping to reverse the downward trend.

“Even economy goes down, the sales go down, but we still have to spend the same payroll, rent, insurance, and everything else, so the only thing we do is we’re very focused on adapting and have more products and creative, more like give some reason for our customers to feel the value why they want to spend money at our store,” Thai said. “We don’t need to attract more tourists, but we need to attract the quality tourists.”