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Hawaii Visitors by Island 2022

If it's Hawaii tourism data you're looking for, then you're in the right place. We'll cover the latest tourism trends (within the last 1-3 years) on the Hawaiian islands and provide a series of graphics and summarized data to give you a good idea of what's happening by the numbers.

The adjacent graph shows the  Total ARRIVAL Data in 2022  to each island (including multi-destination/island arrivals). You can also view our historical 2018 data graph ,  2016 data graph , and  2006 data graph  for comparison. A pie chart is not truly the best format to display the visitor totals for the various islands as the number of visitors shown in the chart is greater than the true total, as many visitors go to more than one island. However, for our purposes, it should give you an idea of how many visitors (percentage-wise) are arriving/visiting each island. Just keep in mind the actual arrival numbers are "inflated" a bit. A more accurate way to look at this is 'Visitor Days,' per island, but these percentages seen here provide an accurate overview of each island's visitation.

Latest DBEDT Tourism Updates

Department of business, economic development and tourism - monthly summary.

December 2023 Visitation & Spending

December 2023 Update

In December 2023, Hawaii marked the fifth consecutive month with declining visitor expenditures, experiencing a slight dip in both visitor arrivals (860,831 visitors, -1.3%) and spending ($1.96 billion, -1.2%) compared to December 2022. Despite this, the overall visitor spending for 2023 showed an increase from the previous year.

Visitor Arrivals and Spending : December 2023’s visitor count represented a 90.4% recovery from pre-pandemic levels in December 2019. The majority of visitors arrived by air service from the U.S. West and East, with a notable increase in arrivals by sea.

• U.S. West and East : Visitors from these regions showed a decrease in arrivals and spending compared to the previous year, but an increase from 2019.
• Japan and Canada : There was a significant increase in visitors from Japan compared to 2022, though numbers were still lower than in 2019. Canadian visitor numbers decreased from both 2022 and 2019.

Island-Specific Numbers :

    •     Oahu : Received 514,345 visitors with $885.1 million spent.     •     Maui : 196,402 visitors marked the highest number in five months post-wildfires, with $464.4 million spent.     •     Kauai : Saw 120,290 visitors, with spending reaching $266.0 million.     •     Hawaii Island : Welcomed 163,133 visitors and saw $309.5 million in spending.

The year 2023 concluded with an increase in total visitor spending to $20.78 billion, and total arrivals rose by 4.4% from 2022.

Official Press Release

November 2023 Visitation & Spending

November 2023 Update

Visitor Arrivals and Spending : In November 2023, Hawaii experienced a slight increase in visitor arrivals but continued to see a decrease in spending compared to the previous year. A total of 731,233 visitors represented a modest 0.3 percent increase over November 2022, yet spending decreased to $1.53 billion, down 2.4 percent from the previous year.

Source of Visitors : The majority of visitors came by air service, mainly from the U.S. West and East. There was a small increase in visitors from Canada, and a significant surge from Japan compared to 2022, though numbers remained much lower than in 2019.

Key details from the Island in November 2023 :

    •     Oahu saw a rise in visitors to 440,049 but a drop in spending to $652.9 million.     •     Maui had 161,522 visitors, recovering from wildfire impacts, with spending at $375.5 million.     •     Kauai hosted 106,907 visitors, with spending increasing to $212.7 million.     •     Hawaii Island welcomed 135,645 visitors with spending reaching $262.7 million.

Overall, there was a year-to-date increase in total visitor spending and arrivals, with $18.82 billion in spending and 8,783,688 arrivals, indicating growth from 2022.

October 2023 Visitation & Spending

October 2023 Update

In October 2023, Hawaii continued to see a decline in both visitor arrivals and spending compared to 2022, marking the third consecutive month of downturn following the Lahaina wildfires.

Visitor Arrivals and Spending : October 2023 saw 734,582 visitors, a 3.2% decrease from October 2022, but a 92.3% recovery compared to pre-pandemic October 2019. Total visitor spending was $1.51 billion, down from $1.54 billion in October 2022 but up from $1.33 billion in October 2019​​.

Source of Visitors : The majority of visitors arrived by air service, primarily from the U.S. West and U.S. East. The U.S. West contributed 362,258 visitors, a decrease from 2022 but an increase from 2019. U.S. East saw a decline in arrivals compared to 2022 but an increase from 2019. Visitors from Japan increased significantly from 2022 but were much lower than in 2019. Canadian visitor numbers decreased from both 2022 and 2019​​.

Numbers by Island :

• Oahu : Received 448,096 visitors, a 14.7% increase from October 2022, with spending reaching $673.3 million, slightly up from the previous year​​.
• Maui : After the wildfires, visitation dropped to 132,909, a 42.3% decrease from 2022, and spending fell to $326.2 million, down 25.2% from the previous year​​.
• Kauai : Saw a stable visitor count at 109,337, virtually unchanged from 2022, but spending increased to $233.2 million, a significant rise of 34.1% from the previous year​​.
• Hawaii Island : Had 133,081 visitors, a 6% decrease from October 2022, with spending of $246.1 million, an 8% increase from the prior year​​.

September 2023 Visitation & Spending

September 2023 Update

In September 2023, Hawaii experienced a decrease in both visitor arrivals and spending compared to the same period in 2022, partly due to the aftermath of the Lahaina fires on Maui. The total number of visitors was 651,286, marking a 7.4% decrease from September 2022, yet showing an 88.5% recovery from pre-pandemic levels of September 2019. Total visitor spending was $1.37 billion, a reduction from the $1.52 billion in September 2022 but an increase from September 2019's $1.25 billion.

The majority of visitors arrived by air, predominantly from the U.S. West and East. The U.S. West sent 329,187 visitors, a decrease from 2022 but an increase from 2019. U.S. East saw 153,635 visitors, down from 2022 but up from 2019. Visitors from Japan increased significantly compared to 2022 but were much lower than 2019 numbers. Canadian visitor numbers and spending also decreased compared to 2022 and 2019.

Visitor demographics varied across the islands. Oahu welcomed 433,209 visitors, Maui received 94,221 visitors, significantly impacted by the wildfires, Kauai hosted 115,305 visitors, and Hawaii Island saw 129,444 visitors. Each island exhibited unique trends in visitor arrivals and spending, reflecting diverse attractions and visitor experiences.

August 2023 Visitation & Spending

August 2023 Update

In August 2023, Hawaii's tourism was notably impacted by the Lahaina wildfires, leading to a 7.3% decrease in total visitor arrivals compared to August 2022. This figure represented an 83.0% recovery from the pre-pandemic levels of August 2019. The total number of visitors was 769,163, with a significant decline in arrivals to Maui due to the wildfires. Visitor spending for the month was $1.58 billion, lower than the $1.74 billion spent in August 2022, but still higher than the $1.50 billion from August 2019.

The majority of visitors, 766,023, arrived by air service, mainly from the U.S. West and U.S. East, with an additional 3,140 coming via a single cruise ship. The average length of stay for all visitors was 8.67 days, slightly less than in August 2022. The statewide average daily census was 215,020 visitors.

Visitor arrivals to different islands varied. Oahu saw an increase in visitors, with 507,702 arrivals. Hawaii Island and Kauai also experienced increases in visitor numbers. In contrast, Maui faced a significant drop in visitor arrivals, with only 112,259 visitors, less than half the volume of August 2022, primarily due to the Lahaina wildfires which led to the cancellation of 88 direct transpacific flights to Kahului.

Visitor demographics from different regions showed mixed trends. The U.S. West sent 392,427 visitors, a decrease from both 2022 and 2019. However, their spending, although lower than in 2022, was higher than in 2019. Visitors from the U.S. East also decreased compared to both 2022 and 2019, but their spending increased from 2019 levels. Visitors from Japan increased dramatically from 2022 but were much lower than 2019 figures. Canadian visitor numbers and spending decreased compared to 2022 and 2019.

There were 103,589 visitors from other international markets, including Oceania, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Guam, the Philippines, and the Pacific Islands. This figure was an increase from 2022 but a decrease from 2019.

July 2023 Visitation & Spending

July 2023 Update

In July 2023, Hawaii’s tourism showed a positive trend, with 932,713 visitors marking a 1.5% increase from July 2022 and representing a 93.7% recovery from July 2019. Visitor spending reached $2.05 billion, exceeding the figures from both 2022 and 2019. The majority of visitors, 929,386 in total, arrived by air, primarily from the U.S. West and East. The average length of stay for all visitors was 9.06 days.

From the U.S. West, there were 499,029 visitors, a decrease from 2022 but an increase from 2019, with spending of $972.1 million. Visitors from the U.S. East were comparable to 2022 numbers and higher than in 2019, with spending of $628.4 million. Visitor arrivals from Japan saw a significant increase compared to 2022 but were still lower than 2019 figures, with spending of $83.2 million. Canadian visitors slightly exceeded 2019 levels, with a total spend of $68.2 million.

The visitor count from other international markets, including Oceania, Asia, Europe, and Latin America, was 100,912, showing a modest increase from 2022 but a decrease from 2019. Total trans-Pacific flights servicing the islands were slightly fewer than in 2022 and 2019.

For the first seven months of 2023, total visitor spending amounted to $12.83 billion, showing an increase from both 2022 and 2019. Total arrivals during this period were 5,897,424, higher than in 2022 but lower than in 2019.

Island-specific details reveal that Oahu welcomed 528,585 visitors with a spending of $870.7 million. Maui received 293,681 visitors, with spending of $623.4 million. Kauai had 139,771 visitors and a spend of $264.5 million. Hawaii Island saw 171,957 visitors, with a spending of $263.0 million.

Visitor demographics varied, with a significant portion of U.S. West visitors being repeat visitors, and a majority staying in hotels. The first seven months of 2023 saw 3,110,046 visitors from the U.S. West, spending $6.05 billion. The U.S. East contributed 1,563,393 visitors, spending $4.05 billion. From Japan, there were 267,131 visitors, spending $427.5 million, and from Canada, 284,544 visitors, spending $726.2 million.

These statistics reflect a steady recovery in Hawaii’s tourism industry, with significant contributions from various international markets and a strong showing from U.S. visitors.

The tabular chart shown further below gives the breakdown of visitors in the islands on a month by month basis (color coded per island), based on data from 2019 & 2022 visitor reports.

Visitor Days & Visitor Expenditures

In considering the "health" of the tourism market, one must also put emphasis on the two factors that are the most important: "visitor days" and "visitor expenditures." 

Mahalo for the tip by 'amberloo' at TripAdvisor. In her words, " If there are more visitor days and more money being spent annually over the long-term, the industry is healthy regardless of any other factors; such as mere arrival totals. The goal of many government planners is to increase "days" and "spending" while limiting (or even decreasing) arrival counts. "

Why limit arrival counts you might ask? One has to consider tourism "capacities" of the islands and how that will affect future trends. Maui and O'ahu likely reached their carrying capacity (for visitors) years ago, thus have few remaining competitive development opportunities and will not have the statistical fluctuations or upside growth potentials seen on Kaua'i. In fact, due to growth in recent years, Kaua'i has now about reached its own carrying capacity pending completion of on-going development.

Estimated Hawaii Visitor Arrivals by Month 2019 & 2022

Individual Hawaiian Island Data

These statistics are "arrival" data - meaning visitors who arrived in the islands (either from the mainland US, abroad, or from another island).

When viewing these statistics, we encourage visitors to keep the geographic size of the islands in mind. For example, the Big Island and Kauai have very similar trends in arrivals. However, the Big Island is significantly larger geographically speaking than Kauai (in fact, it is larger than all of the other islands combined) so these visitor numbers alone cannot tell the complete story. Kauai and the Big Island may very well have the exact same number of visitors any given month, but the size of the island will also determine how "crowded" it feels.

Big Island of Hawaii Visitor Data

The largest in the chain typically ranges between 100,000-175,000 arrivals each month. Excluding the summer "hump" felt through all the islands, the number of arrivals fluctuates much less than some other islands in the chain, so visitation is usually about the same in Hawai'i. The events we noted on the  best time to travel to Hawaii  page, that are held each spring and fall, can increase visitor ratios on the island. The volcanic eruption that began in May 2018 is also to have likely affected arrival numbers for this period.

Maui Visitor Data

The second largest island in the chain typically ranges between 210,000-300,000 arrivals each month. The summer "hump" is by far the largest period of arrivals, but there are also significant spikes at other times during the year, most notably around the Christmas holidays.

Kauai Visitor Data

The fourth largest island in the chain typically ranges between 100,000-140,000 visitors each month. Kauai, in general, is a much quieter island (arrival wise) when compared to the likes of the other islands in the chain. But that may be due to its size and "theme" (all things green). The summer "hump" is the only really busy time on the island, though it's not as distinct as the "hump" Maui and Oahu experience. The 2018 winter and spring storms and subsequent closures on Kauai likely affected visitor arrivals after this period.

Oahu Visitor Data

The third largest island in the chain typically ranges between 450,000-570,000 visitors each month. As you can quickly see, that number quickly dwarfs the other islands arrival data. Oahu is widely popular with visitors abroad, and given that 75% of the state's population lives on this single island, the arrival data can skew accordingly.

Typical Hawaii Visitor Timeline

Typical Visitor Planning Timeline

More Information:

Hawaii Weathe r page or Selecting a Hawaiian island to visit

If you want even more detailed tourism specifications, please visit the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism .

Molokai & Lanai Visitor Data

These two islands only make up slightly more than 1% of all visitor arrivals combined. If you're heading to either of these two islands and are curious about this data, we suggest you look at the detailed statistics provided on the  Hawaii Tourism Authority  website.

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Article Published/Updated: 03-18-2024

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Hawaii Just Saw the Highest Number of Visitors In One Month Since January 2020

Daniel Slim/Getty Images

More than 900,000 travelers visited Hawaii in July, representing the most monthly visitors to head to the Aloha State since before the pandemic in January 2020.

In total, 919,154 travelers visited at least one of the Hawaiian islands in July, according to preliminary visitor statistics released by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT). That was a 92.4% recovery from July 2019 and a record during the post-pandemic era. 

“Our destination management work will continue to focus on educating visitors about traveling within our islands in a manner that is mindful, as we seek to balance the economic vitality of our industry with the health of our natural environment and the well-being of our communities,” Hawaii Tourism Authority President and CEO John De Fries said in a statement. “Travelers from around the world… have come to know and appreciate that Hawaii is indeed a special place where dreams do come true.”

Most visitors who arrived in July came from the West Coast of the United States, followed by the East Coast. All visitors arrived by air.

When it came to international travelers, most arrived from Canada, followed by Japan. But while just over 23,000 Japanese tourists visited in July 2022 (and most of them were repeat visitors to the state), that was significantly lower than before the pandemic when more than 134,000 Japanese tourists visited in July 2019.

Other international travelers included visitors from Guam, the Philippines, Europe, Latin America, and more.

Oahu , where Honolulu is located, was the most popular of the islands with more than 491,000 visitors in July, followed by Maui , which saw more than 304,000 visitors. Kauai , known as the “ Garden Isle ,” saw the fewest visitors with just over 138,000 travelers coming in July.

Overall, June, July, and December tend to be the busiest months to travel to Hawaii , while December through May is the best time to spot humpback whales off the islands.

Alison Fox is a contributing writer for Travel + Leisure. When she's not in New York City, she likes to spend her time at the beach or exploring new destinations and hopes to visit every country in the world. Follow her adventures on Instagram .

Maui Travel Updates

Historical Visitor Statistics

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Historical Island Data

Current Island Highlights are located in 'Visitor Highlights' Current Monthly Visitor Statistics are located in 'Visitor Highlights'

Arrivals by island 1990 through 2022

Historical Visitor Expenditures

Current Visitor Expenditures is located in 'Visitor Highlights'

Visitor expenditures 2001 through 2022

Historical Visitors By U.S. Regions

Current Visitor Arrivals by U.S. Regions is located in 'Visitor Highlights'

Arrivals by U.S. regions 1988 through 2022

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Current Visitor Arrivals by MMA is located in 'Visitor Highlights'

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9 Charts That Show How Hawaii Tourism Is Changing

Editor’s Note: “Tourism’s Tipping Point” is an ongoing Civil Beat series that looks at the future of the vacation industry in Hawaii, its impact on our lifestyles and environment, and its sustainability.  

On the surface, these are heady times for the tourism industry.

This year, Hawaii is expecting to draw a record 10.2 million visitors, with continued growth expected in the future. The industry now accounts for 125,000 jobs — roughly one in five jobs in Hawaii. Airlines are expanding flights into Hawaii.

10 Million Visitors: Can Hawaii Survive Its Own Popularity?

But understanding where the industry is headed is more complicated. Visitors are spending less per capita than three decades ago, including on places to stay, often choosing vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods. And they’re increasingly opting for cheaper activities like hiking. And as crowds grow, so too does the possibility of a public backlash, according to recent surveys.

Here’s a look at Hawaii tourism by the numbers:

Visitors to Hawaii soared during the 30-year span from 1960 to 1990, rising to 6.7 million from less than 1 million. Over the next two decades, visitor counts grew modestly before taking a dive because of the Great Recession. Now the numbers are rising dramatically with no end in sight.

As the number of visitors to Hawaii has grown, so have the number of jobs that depend on the industry . No private sector industry is more important. In sheer numbers, government jobs rival the leisure and hospitality sector. So does a sector called “retail, trade, transportation and utilities,” the bulk of which are retail jobs. But when factoring in the number of retail establishments that cater to tourists, the tourism industry’s importance becomes even more enormous.

In 1939, just 520 passengers came to Honolulu on trans-Pacific flights, according to Robert C. Schmitt’s “Historical Statistics of Hawaii.” Back then, a round-trip ticket between Honolulu and San Francisco cost $556, more than $10,000 in today’s dollars. It’s no wonder passenger numbers were small. It took nearly 30 years for the air passenger count to reach 1 million.

Since then, the numbers have grown exponentially. And while the bulk of visitors still come from the western U.S., as they did during the days of Pan Am’s first flights to the islands, Hawaii’s roughly 10 million visitors come from all over the world.

A striking statistic is that even as Hawaii’s visitor count has risen significantly, the number of people staying in traditional hotels — or the number of hotels — hasn’t grown much. So where are these millions of additional people staying?  In vacation rentals, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority

But the category of “vacation rentals” doesn’t tell the whole story. There’s yet another hard-to-count category, the properties advertised on sites like Airbnb, which the authority calls “individually advertised units.” These totaled 30,000 statewide, according to a lengthy appendix to the authority’s inventory of visitor accommodations. The growth in vacation rentals and individually advertised units is noteworthy because people staying in those accommodations tend to spend less overall that other visitors, HTA has reported.

Despite ever-growing visitor numbers, Paul Brewbaker, an independent economist, has long pointed out a less positive trend. When adjusted for inflation, visitor expenditures now are only where they were in 1989, even though we have about 2.5 million more tourists than we had then. That means more side effects — stresses on roads, reefs, trails and beaches — to generate the same economic benefits.

It’s not surprising that visitors renting Airbnb or other vacation houses spend, on average, less for lodging than people staying in hotels. But according to HTA, they also spend less on food and beverages, shopping and other entertainment and recreation. In fact, people staying in hotels spend more across the board.

Industry officials say the recreational interests of visitors are changing.

One example: a rising popularity of hiking to Instagrammable trails and a decline in the popularity of golf. Back in 2002, visitors from Hawaii’s most popular market, the U.S. West, golfed about as much as they hiked. Just under 20% hit the links then, while 21% hit the trails. But by 2017, the percentage of golfers had declined by about 50 percent, while the percentage of hikers increased by about 36 percent. The trend is consistent across most of Hawaii’s markets.

It’s significant not just because it shows travelers have less expensive tastes. Golfers tend to pay large fees, which go to using and maintaining courses; hikers typically pay little or nothing to maintain the trails they use.

Hiking And Recreational Area Rescues (2016-2018)

One of the presumed costs of all the tourists hitting the hiking trails is the cost of rescuing them.  As the interactive map above shows, trails that seem to attract large numbers of tourists — even easy ones like the paved path up Diamond Head and the mostly gentle trail to Manoa Falls trail — have the most rescues.

HFD statistics show at least 130 rescues at Diamond Head from 2016 through 2018. That amounts to more than one per week. In three years alone, there were 995 rescues with more than a tenth occurring on Diamond Head alone.

As the crowds grow and the impacts on beaches, roads and once hard-to-reach places are felt far beyond Waikiki, locals have grown more wary of the state’s most economically important industry. A significant, but declining majority still agree that tourism provides net benefits to Hawaii. But an even stronger majority believe the island is now being run for tourists at the expense of locals.

“Tourism’s Tipping Point”  is part of Civil Beat’s year-long series, “Hawaii’s Changing Economy.” That work is supported by a grant from the Hawaii Community Foundation  as part of its CHANGE Framework project.

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Hawaii tourism drops, with recovery expected in 2024

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Demand for travel to Hawaii has fallen, especially on Maui, and travel industry experts say it’s not expected to materially recover until 2024.

Jack Richards, president and CEO of Pleasant Holidays, said travel to Hawaii was up 16.5% for 2024 before the Maui wildfires in August, and is now negative statewide.

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“We are off by double digits from October to April. Recovery will build gradually over time, but we don’t believe that we’ll get back to historic levels before May or June,” he said. “Right now, demand is well below historic levels for Maui. It’s the fires, (high) prices and mixed messaging. People are unsure about coming to Hawaii.”

Some of what Richards is talking about is a continuation of what is already showing up in preliminary statistics released Monday by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. The numbers showed that the sluggish return of visitors to Maui after the August wildfires and to the state from North America caused September arrivals and nominal spending statewide to drop year-over-year for the second month in a row.

Some 651,286 visitors came to the Hawaiian Islands in September, down 7.4% from September 2022 and moving the pre-pandemic arrivals recovery back to 88.5% from September 2019, according to DBEDT data.

Nominal visitor spending, which hasn’t been adjusted to show the relative price over time, fell 9.6% to $1.37 billion in September. However, nominal spending in September was still 10.2% higher than in September 2o19, when it was $1.25 billion.

Year-over-year September results varied across the islands, according to DBEDT data. Visitors to Oahu in September rose 12.5% to 433,209, while nominal spending fell-3.2% to $676.6 million.

Kauai arrivals rose 10.3% to 115,305 in September, and nominal spending increased 28.9% to $224.2 million.

Hawaii Island visitors rose 8.6% to 129,444. Nominal spending on Hawaii Island increased 28.7% to $254.8 million.

However, arrivals to Maui plummeted 57.1% to 94,221 visitors in September, while nominal spending plunged 52.6% to $203.2 million.

DBEDT Director James Kunane Tokioka said in a statement, “The impacts from the Maui wildfires were significant in September 2023 with both visitor arrivals and visitor expenditures down by more than 50 percent for Maui for the month compared to 2022.”

Tokioka added, “Visitor arrivals on Maui in September 2023 (94,221) recorded the lowest since February 2021 and visitor spending of $203.2 million on Maui in September 2023 was the lowest since March 2021.With the reopening of West Maui that started in October, tourism on Maui is expected to improve over the next few months.”

Mayor Maui Richard Bissen recently announced that West Maui, which had been undergoing a phased reopening since the deadly Aug. 8 Lahaina fire, would fully reopen Wednesday. While Maui bookings have improved slightly since then, hotel occupancy at Maui hotels is not even close to normal, said Keith Vieira, principal of KV &Associates, Hospitality Consulting.

“First quarter will probably be back to 50% of 2023 in Kaanapali, but Wailea will be better than that,” Vieira said.

Richards said Maui is a major reason for the decline in September demand as well as future demand for Hawaii as a whole.

But that’s only part of the equation. U.S. travel demand, in general, is undergoing a more pronounced seasonal slowdown than normal. Also, Hawaii is no longer the No. 1 travel destination for Japanese travelers, who since summer have favored South Korea.

While Labor Day boosted travel by U.S. households early in the month, data from the Omnitrak Travel Market Penetration Index showed that demand slowed below prior-year levels for September overall.

Chris Kam, Omnitrak president and chief operating officer, said in a statement, “While the usual seasonal slowdown in September is not surprising, the dip in travel was more pronounced than expected.”

“With September travel penetration aligning more closely with 2021 than prior year levels, residents in communities with overtourism concerns are experiencing some ‘breathing space’ in the Fall shoulder period following a strong summer,” Kam said.

Omnitrak founder and CEO Pat Loui said in a statement that a reason is that “international destinations continued to attract U.S. travelers in September (+18.1%), according to the National Travel and Tourism Office’s year-over-year data.”

Loui added that the “U.S. Travel Association’s Travel Price Index rose +4.4% over prior year levels, adding rising prices to the challenging marketplace conditions facing domestic destinations in September.”

To be sure, Hawaii’s largest tourist source market, the U.S. West, saw September arrivals drop to 329,187. It was a sharp 16.7 % year-over-year drop — however, up 7.6% from September 2019.

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Hawaii tourism outlook is flat amid challenges, economists say.

• By Allison Schaefers [email protected]
• Feb. 12, 2024

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / [email protected].

Tourists enjoy the Duke Kahanamoku Beach on Thursday.

The forecast for Hawaii tourism in 2024 is “same old”: a year of flat visitor arrivals, which aren’t even expected to recover to Hawaii’s benchmark 2019 level until after 2025. Read more

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The forecast for Hawaii tourism in 2024 is “same old”: a year of flat visitor arrivals, which aren’t even expected to recover to Hawaii’s benchmark 2019 level until after 2025.

That was the opinion of Eugene Tian, state economist for the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, and other experts who spoke Thursday at the 2024 Annual Outlook &Economic Forecast Forum for the Hawaii Chapters of the Pacific Asia Travel Association and the Travel and Tourism Research Association.

“The economy for the U.S. is going to slow down in 2024. (The economic growth projection for the U.S.) was about 2.4% in 2023, and it’s going down to 1.6% in 2024 and 1.7% in 2025,” Tian said.

He added that the economy will be slower this year than it was in 2024 for most of Hawaii’s tourism source markets.

“The news is not too good, but it’s pretty much flat for 2024 in terms of tourism,” Tian said.

Those in Hawaii’s overtourism camp, who have pushed back since visitor arrivals rose above 10 million in 2019, aren’t likely to feel much angst. However, Hawaii’s visitor industry is likely to view the stagnancy less positively, especially since plenty of headwinds are on the horizon.

Dale Carstensen, FLEX project director, leisure sales, Hawaii and French Polynesia, a member of the Marriott International Sales Organization, said headwinds include the state of global economics, competing destinations, airline support for Hawaii, and Hawaii government’s stand on tourism.

Tian said Hawaii’s 2024 tourism outlook closely parallels the national forecast provided by Aran Ryan, director of industry studies at Tourism Economics.

“While travel nationwide showed signs of resilience and recovery in 2023, the industry enters 2024 with the challenge of a slowing economy, weakening finances and international headwinds,” Ryan said.

Tian said in DBEDT’s most recent economic forecast, released in December, that visitor arrivals to Hawaii in 2024 and 2025 were expected to reach 9.8 million and 10.1 million, respectively, which is still below the 2019 benchmark of 10.4 million arrivals. Tian said Hawaii’s real gross domestic product — the value of all goods and services — during the third quarter of 2023 was at only 97.7% of 2019’s third-quarter level.

“We have not recovered, but the U.S. economy has pretty much recovered in 2021, so we have been falling behind,” he said, adding that Hawai’s nontourism sectors have fully recovered to 100%, but Hawaii’s tourism sector is at only about 90% recovery.

Chris Kam, Omintrak Group president, said the labor shortage in Hawaii likely cut into productivity growth, especially for tourism.

Indeed, Tian said overall unfilled jobs in Hawaii averaged 7,400 a month in 2019 but were 11,400 during first 11 months of 2023.

Paul Brewbaker, principal of TZ Economics, also expressed a concern that reducing visitor arrivals is the No. 1 goal in the Oahu Destination Management Action Plan, a community-driven visioning process for tourism and stewardship goals. He said Hawaii’s visitor plant inventory stopped growing after the 1980s, and recently, crackdowns on short-term rentals could obliterate jobs and incomes and stifle travel and tourism innovation such as the new trend of remote workers combining business and travel.

“Hawaii traded away growth for volatility after the 1980s, without insurance,” Brewbaker said. “Be careful what you wish for in suppressing lodging receipts. ‘Those taro loi volunteers sure spend tons of money,’ said nobody, ever.”

Hawaii Real Estate Sales: Dec. 4-8, 2023

On the move: terry nakamura.

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Tens of thousands protest against Canary Islands’ ‘unsustainable’ tourism model

Organisers say 50,000 turn out to call for limit on tourist numbers, saying model makes life unaffordable and puts strain on resources

Tens of thousands of people are protesting across the Canary Islands to call for an urgent rethink of the Spanish archipelago’s tourism strategy and a freeze on visitor numbers, arguing that the decades-old model has made life unaffordable and environmentally unsustainable for residents.

The protests, which are taking place under the banner “Canarias tiene un límite” – The Canaries have a limit – are backed by environmental groups including Greenpeace, WWF, Ecologists in Action, Friends of the Earth and SEO/Birdlife.

“We’ve reached the point where the balance between the use of resources and the welfare of the population here has broken down, especially over the past year,” said Víctor Martín, a spokesperson for the collective Canarias se Agota – The Canaries Have Had Enough – which helped to coordinate protests on Saturday across the eight islands.

Eleven members of Canarias se Agota have already been on hunger strike for a week to protest against the construction of two large luxury developments in southern Tenerife, which they describe as illegal and totally unnecessary.

Police said 20,000 people had turned out for the demonstrations, but organisers put the figure closer to 50,000, Spain’s TVE public television said.

“We are not against tourism,” Rosario Correo, one of the protesters, told TVE. “We’re asking that they change this model that allows for unlimited growth of tourism.”

Protesters also gathered in Madrid and Barcelona to show their support for the rallies in the Canary Islands, public television said.

Last year, 13.9 million people visited the islands, which have a population of 2.2 million. Tourism accounts for about 35% of the archipelago’s GDP – bringing in €16.9bn in 2022 alone – but local people say the industry is stressing natural resources and pricing them out of the rental market.

Figures from Spain’s National Statistics Institute show that 33.8% of people in the Canaries are at risk of poverty or social exclusion , the highest proportion for any region except Andalucía.

Martín said the regional government’s continuing focus on tourism at a time when the climate emergency was leading to cuts to water supplies made no sense. “Demand is rising in urban areas where there are more tourists,” he said. “We’ve had a very dry winter and a water emergency’s already been declared on Tenerife.

“There are going to be restrictions if there’s not more rain this month but it’s 36C here right now. This is all unsustainable and it means that we won’t even be able to keep normal levels of tourism going. And yet the authorities and the businesses here are trying to stick with this model.”

The housing situation in many parts of the archipelago was also dire because of high prices, low wages, a lack of public housing and the continuing cost of living crisis, Martín said. “I realised we’d reached the limit when I saw people who were working as hotel maids or waiters were living in shacks.

“Wages are so low that they don’t cover the basic costs of living, especially in the current crisis, which is global, but has been felt keenly in the Canaries because we have to import practically everything.”

He insisted the protest movement was not anti-tourist, pointing out that many people in the Canaries had known and liked generations of families from countries such as the UK and Germany.

“The problem isn’t the tourists,” he said. “It’s a model that was built around, and with the connivance of, a business class that doesn’t want to listen to what needs to be done, and with a political class that serves that business class instead of serving all the citizens.”

He said a complete rethink of the Canaries’ tourism model could not wait. “What we’re asking is very simple. Given that tourism is the main economic activity and the cause of all these problems, we want an immediate halt to these two mega-projects,” he said of the Tenerife developments.

“We also want a tourist moratorium that will lead to a study of the load each island can take and which will determine whether we’ve already passed the critical point. In areas where there’s an overload, we want to see a stage of degrowth of economic activity to benefit natural resources. Otherwise, you have an existing model that only benefits a very few people.”

Martín said a proper study of the problems the Canaries suffer from could have global repercussions. “This rethinking of the tourism model could put the Canaries on the map as an example of sustainable tourism development,” he said. “We could be known for something positive instead of something negative.”

Fernando Clavijo, the regional president of the Canary Islands, has said his administration is already taking action. “All the actions this government has taken have been based on a revision of this model,” he told reporters this week . “The Canaries tourist model has been a successful one, but obviously, as with anything, there are things that could be perfected.”

Over-tourism has become a major issue in many Spanish cities and regions , triggering protests and backlashes in Barcelona , and leading the authorities in Seville to consider charging visitors to explore the Andalucían city’s famous Plaza de España .

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Inside the Late-Night Parties Where Hawaii Politicians Raked In Money

After the state passed a law barring government contractors from donating to politicians, fund-raising parties showed just how completely the reform effort failed.

By Blaze Lovell ,  Eric Sagara and Irene Casado Sanchez

The reporters examined campaign contributions and government contracts for this article, part of a series about loopholes in Hawaii’s pay-to-play laws, for The Times’s Local Investigations Fellowship .

For the better part of a decade, some of Hawaii’s most powerful people huddled together at late-night parties in a cramped second-floor office where lobbyists and executives seeking government contracts lined up to drop cash and checks into a metal lockbox.

That was the entry fee for these extraordinary political fund-raisers. Inside the office, just a short walk from the State Capitol in downtown Honolulu, dozens of guests were served sushi prepared by professional chefs and unlimited beer and liquor.

At the end of the night, Wesley Yonamine, the host and a high-ranking airport official, would, together with the politicians, pop open the box and dole out campaign contributions according to a list of pledges obtained before each event.

As described by attendees, a typical party could bring in thousands of dollars in donations, giving some elected officials almost half their annual campaign haul in a single night.

It was not supposed to work this way. In 2005, in response to a series of scandals, Hawaii passed a law that barred government contractors from giving money to politicians. It was billed as one of the nation’s most ambitious efforts to end pay-to-play in contracting and designed to fundamentally change the political culture of a state steeped in corruption.

But legislators wrote a loophole into the law, effectively gutting it: The ban would apply only to donations from the actual corporate entities that got contracts, but not to their owners, employees or any related businesses.

Mr. Yonamine’s parties illustrated just how completely the reform effort failed.

Today, Hawaii is reeling from its latest government corruption scandal, with state officials accused of taking bribes from Milton Choy, a prominent businessman who wore a wire for at least a year as part of a deal with the federal government.

But that is just one glimpse of the role money plays in politics here.

An examination of Hawaii’s contracting system by The New York Times and Honolulu Civil Beat offers a detailed look at the workings of a state known for favoritism and patronage, a culture where big companies with ties to politicians have historically dominated.

“Pay-to-play is woven into the DNA of the statehood of Hawaii,” said Camron Hurt, director of Common Cause Hawaii, a watchdog group. He pointed to the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom that led to an “oligarchy” of businessmen, sugar barons and large landowners lasting decades. The industries involved had close ties to the ruling political parties well into the 1960s and 1970s, when Hawaii’s campaign finance regulations were written.

A Times and Civil Beat analysis of campaign donations and contracts found that since 2006 — the year the pay-to-play law went into place — people tied to government contractors have provided a remarkable percentage of the money fueling state and local politics. They have given state and local Hawaii politicians more than $24 million: about one-fifth of all donations made. Of that total, $6 million has come from people tied to just 15 companies.

Most donors rarely mentioned their employers in public records designed to bring transparency to political donations. But The Times and Civil Beat, reviewing hundreds of thousands of campaign records, linked more than 28,000 of the donations to contractors.

The analysis almost certainly captured only some contributions, in part because the state could not provide a full list of contractors. In fact, record keeping is so poor that some vendor information is collected only on paper, while electronic records are riddled with errors. Several of the state’s biggest agencies did not respond to repeated requests for financial records or said they could not find them.

The examination found more than a dozen examples over the past six years of people tied to contractors donating to political campaigns in the months before key decisions led to deals.

Well-timed donations from people linked to contractors

When some companies were on the verge of winning big government contracts, people connected to them donated larger amounts of money to the relevant officials.

Some of the elected officials who could crack down on favoritism are themselves benefiting from the lack of oversight. At least a dozen legislators have worked for or co-owned companies that won state contracts, some profiting in ways that have not been previously reported.

The Times contacted every politician and campaign donor named in this article. Most of those who responded said there was no link between campaign donations and the contracts they won.

Mr. Yonamine acknowledged hosting the fund-raisers but declined requests for a detailed interview. In a brief statement, he denied influencing any contract awards and said he was “raised to give back to the community.”

“It’s what drove me to work in public service for 36 years,” he said. “Helping those seeking elected office by supporting their fund-raisers is an extension of these values and an important aspect of civic engagement afforded citizens under the law.”

Political donations are regulated by the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission, which has a staff of just five people who are responsible for tracking tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions.

Gary Kam, the commission’s general counsel, acknowledged that the law restricted only a small portion of donations. Executives can give freely, and if bundled together, in greater amounts than if their company donated on its own. Expanding the law to cover those people is the “key to it all,” he said.

Many people charged with campaign finance violations have been allowed to keep giving — and to keep getting contracts, The Times and Civil Beat found.

Michael Matsumoto, president of the engineering firm SSFM International, pleaded no contest to money laundering involving campaign funds in 2003. He has since contributed $130,000 to a range of politicians, and the company continues to win public work. He declined to comment.

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People with ties to another major contributor are on trial for corruption. In 2022, federal prosecutors accused the chief executive of the engineering firm Mitsunaga & Associates and four of its employees of bribing Keith Kaneshiro, who was the top prosecutor in Honolulu, with campaign contributions to pursue a criminal case against a former employee. The defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Dennis Mitsunaga, the chief executive, encouraged others, including family members and people with ties to his company, to donate to candidates, his lawyers said in court. People linked to the firm have donated heavily to a range of politicians, and the firm has won at least $49 million in state contracts since 2011.

All contracts awarded to the firm “were based on merit,” said Nina Marino, a lawyer for Mr. Mitsunaga.

Mr. Kaneshiro’s lawyer argued that campaign contributions made to gain access to politicians were “perfectly legal.”

Other states have been more successful in curbing big campaign contributions from companies seeking government work. In Connecticut, for example, a ban on donations from corporate officers with contracts has wiped out a large swath of campaign funds, according to Joshua Foley, a lawyer for the State Elections Enforcement Commission.

While contractors in Hawaii account for about 20 percent of campaign donations, in Connecticut “the percentage is zero,” Mr. Foley said.

Following recent corruption scandals, the Hawaii Legislature convened a watchdog panel to recommend new laws to improve government transparency. But lawmakers have so far refused to adopt some of the panel’s most meaningful corrective measures.

Notably, bills that would have closed the loophole in the law by prohibiting campaign contributions from company owners, officers and their immediate family members have failed year after year, including in the current legislative session.

Government contractors linked to the most campaign donations

Since 2006, more than $6 million of the campaign money for state and local races in Hawaii has come from people associated with just 15 contractors.

Timely Donations

People tied to big contractors gave more than $1,000 on average — nearly twice as much as political donors who had no obvious government connections, the analysis found. They were also twice as likely to give the maximum for some offices.

Often, their campaign contributions seemed to go to the right people at the right time.

Take R.M. Towill Corporation, a large engineering firm where employees in 2003 were fined for illegal campaign contributions. In the months leading up to the 2022 legislative session, R.M. Towill executives donated to the campaigns of only two state senators — Stanley Chang and Donovan Dela Cruz. Later that year, the two senators were among the co-sponsors of a law that ultimately led to R.M. Towill getting a $500,000 surveying contract.

Mr. Chang said in a recent interview that, besides general discussions of policy, he never talked about legislation or contracts with employees of R.M. Towill. Mr. Dela Cruz did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

In a statement, R.M. Towill’s president, Greg Hiyakumoto, said that company employees supported candidates who pushed for new infrastructure and sustainable development, both of which were part of its mission.

A handful of powerful lawmakers who control vast sums of government money have been among the largest recipients of campaign donations from executives tied to big contractors and their families. Leaders of the influential House Finance and Senate Ways and Means committees, who direct billions of dollars in public works projects every year, have received more than $482,000 in such donations since 2018.

Representative Kyle Yamashita, the current finance chairman, who spent years overseeing the House’s capital improvements budget, has received more than $44,000 in political contributions from people tied to big contractors. Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, who previously led the House Finance Committee, received more than $107,000, while former Representative Ty Cullen, the vice chairman until 2022, got $22,100.

Mr. Dela Cruz has received more than $239,000 in campaign donations from people tied to big contractors since he became Ways and Means chairman in 2018. Former Senator Gil Keith-Agaran, vice chairman until October, got $70,000 during the same time period.

Politicians who raised the most money from people tied to contractors

Some powerful politicians in Hawaii drew a fourth or more of their state and local campaign donations since 2006 from people with ties to government contractors.

In April 2023, the Senate Ways and Means Committee, led by Mr. Dela Cruz, budgeted for the purchase of a Maui hotel to convert into affordable housing and a school. That created a windfall for the law firm Starn O’Toole Marcus & Fisher, which got a $450,000 contract to do legal work on the deal. Two of the firm’s directors had recently donated a combined $3,000 to Mr. Dela Cruz and Gov. Josh Green’s campaigns.

One of the directors, Ivan M. Lui-Kwan, contributed another $2,000 to the governor’s campaign as the bill awaited his signature, and another $1,000 after he approved the budget. Mr. Lui-Kwan and Duane Fisher, a partner at the firm, each donated $1,000 to his campaign about two weeks before the contract was awarded.

Mr. Lui-Kwan said donations made by him and his colleagues had no bearing on state contracts. He said they made it a point to never bring up such work at political fund-raisers.

The governor said staff members involved with procurement didn’t communicate with him. “We adopted this approach to avoid any potential conflicts or concerns,” Mr. Green said in a statement.

People tied to big contractors have targeted local races, too.

In December 2021, Goodfellow Bros., one of Maui’s largest building firms, won a $4.6 million contract to expand a local landfill. It was the lowest bidder. The project was approved for funding in 2020 by the mayor at the time, Michael Victorino, and the County Council.

Afterward, executives and their family members gave around $34,000 in campaign contributions to the mayor and to council members, making them among the biggest donors in Maui County.

Goodfellow Bros. said in a statement that its employees could donate to campaigns so long as they did not give in the company’s name.

Alice Lee, chairwoman of the County Council, said that Maui-based companies like Goodfellow Bros. “generally support candidates who support a stable economy, public health and safety and affordable housing.”

Doing Double Duty

In Hawaii, legislators serve part time and can hold outside jobs, which can increase the risk that they will face conflicts of interest. Nevertheless, they are among the highest-paid part-time lawmakers in the country, earning an annual state salary of about $72,000.

An examination of their financial interests found that a dozen of them were employees, directors or co-owners of companies that had won contracts. Since 2006, those companies have gotten at least $56 million in state deals, according to Hawaii’s contract database.

Disclosure records show that Senate President Ron Kouchi earns between $50,000 and $100,000 annually working for his brother’s disposal company on Kauai, which is the only provider of trash services to agencies on that island.

Representative David Alcos III works as a subcontractor on state projects. Representative Micah Aiu is a lawyer at Nan Inc., one of the state’s biggest contractors, which won at least $39 million in projects last year. They have said they are not directly involved in their companies’ contracts.

Mr. Dela Cruz, the Ways and Means chairman, seems to have actually done hands-on work for a state contract: He was the project manager for a $224,000 State Health Department contract with DTL, a communications firm where he was co-owner and vice president.

The State Health Department, which awarded the contract in 2018 for work on a vaccine campaign, said it did not know Mr. Dela Cruz was an owner.

Jason Antonio, a principal at DTL, said in an email that Mr. Dela Cruz was not a project manager and was not involved in the immunization project. But in its proposal, which was submitted to the Health Department in 2017, DTL listed Mr. Dela Cruz as the project manager who would oversee the work on behalf of the firm.

Ronald Balajadia, the department’s immunization chief, said he mostly worked with two other DTL employees and did not recall interacting with Mr. Dela Cruz.

DTL was the only firm to bid on the contract. After selling his ownership interest in the company in late 2020, Mr. Dela Cruz continued receiving money from the firm for consulting services, according to his 2022 financial disclosure.

A Box Full of Campaign Donations

The clearest example of how contractors and politicians regularly circumvented the reforms were the parties hosted by Mr. Yonamine, the former head of visitor information for Hawaii’s airports.

Mr. Yonamine wasn’t directly involved in awarding contracts, but his gatherings provided a casual setting where executives could be introduced to lawmakers and state employees who selected winners, according to attendees.

The parties started as early as 2014 at Mr. Yonamine’s private office in Honolulu, according to campaign finance records, which lists dates and locations where political fund-raisers are held. They moved to the Pagoda Hotel there in 2019 and continued until at least 2020.

Lawmakers who benefited from the parties said Mr. Yonamine provided the venues while campaigns sometimes invited guests.

Attendees would stand chatting along the walls of the office, or later, on a spacious rooftop balcony at the hotel. The guests, sometimes more than 100 at the hotel, said they would discuss legislation, as well as contracts at the airports. Businesses seeking airport work frequently donated to a range of politicians around the time of those fund-raisers. They described the parties on the condition of anonymity because they work for the state or have business relationships with contractors they don’t want to jeopardize. No one, including Mr. Yonamine, denies they took place.

One of the most prominent guests was Mr. Choy, a major political donor and government contractor who would later be sentenced to more than three years in prison for bribing officials. He and his associates donated more than $28,000 to political campaigns around the time of the parties.

By 2020, Mr. Choy was wearing a wire and actively recording meetings to aid federal investigators.

No evidence has emerged that Mr. Choy’s contributions at the parties were illegal or connected to his bribery scheme.

Many guests did work at the airports, a constant source of multimillion dollar contracts.

At least 59 companies competed for airport contracts between 2014 and 2020. But nearly half the airports’ 153 professional services contracts went to just 14 companies. Executives from those firms all donated around the time of Mr. Yonamine’s parties.

Current and former heads of the division overseeing most of the airport design and engineering contracts did not respond to requests for comment.

The contracts were worth a combined total of more than $131 million, according to the state’s Department of Transportation.

These professional services contracts are for design or consulting jobs, and winners are selected based on their qualifications or proposals rather than just their price. The rules tend to give public officials more leeway to choose a company based on favoritism.

Executives at firms that won airport contracts donated a combined $101,000 around the time of the parties, according to campaign finance records, which show when checks were cashed and not when they were given. Candidates raised a total of more than $470,000.

When presented with The Times and Civil Beat’s findings, Ford Fuchigami, then transportation director and now head of the Airports Division, said he could not comment on the awarding of contracts because he was not in charge of selecting the winners. Mr. Fuchigami said he did not recall attending the parties, though records show he donated around the time of a party in 2019. He said he did not know what the state’s rules were for employees like Mr. Yonamine who were politically active or for officials who attended political gatherings.

“What you do on your personal time is what you do on your personal time,” he said.

The fund-raising parties do not appear to have violated the state’s ethics laws.

Robert Harris, director of the Hawaii State Ethics Commission, said there were generally no prohibitions on political activity during off-hours as long as state employees did not use any state resources.

Other lawmakers who received campaign money around the time of Mr. Yonamine’s parties were Ms. Luke, the lieutenant governor; former Gov. David Ige; Mr. Kouchi, the Hawaii Senate president; and former Mayor Kirk Caldwell of Honolulu, according to fund-raising documents.

Mr. Caldwell and Mr. Kouchi did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Mr. Ige said he mostly remembered seeing Transportation Department employees at Mr. Yonamine’s office but did not recall recognizing contractors.

Mr. Yonamine — who has a certain renown because his uncle Wally Yonamine was a famous athlete — is a figure in local sports. In 2018, one year after he was named varsity baseball coach at Pearl City High School, state lawmakers, some of whom received campaign contributions from his parties, approved $3 million in funding to convert the field from grass to artificial turf.

As Mr. Yonamine spoke from the refurbished field at an opening ceremony in 2022, a Hawaiian priest sprinkled rainwater on home plate.

“Thank you to all who helped make our dreams come true,” Mr. Yonamine said.

This article was reported in partnership with Big Local News at Stanford University.

How the Numbers Were Calculated

The Times and Civil Beat examined hundreds of thousands of campaign contributions and more than 70,000 state contracts to draw connections between vendors and their donations to political races. The analysis revealed that nearly 20 percent of all campaign contributions since 2006 have come from people tied to companies doing business with the state and local governments.

This number is likely an underestimate because the data is incomplete. Records were obtained from the Hawaii Awards & Notices Data System , which tracks who won state contracts, but a 2021 audit found that only 40 percent of all state contracts awarded that year were posted. It’s not clear if the problem applies to other years.

Reporters requested and reviewed check registers to verify the total payments to vendors from departments. Some departments did not respond to public records requests, including those with large numbers of high-value contracts, such as the Education and Transportation Departments.

The gaps in state and county contracting data and check registers made it difficult to determine just how much money vendors actually received. Published amounts were confirmed with source documents or contracting departments.

Contractors were matched against the names of companies, their executives and employees in a database of campaign contributions maintained by the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission. Donations from spouses and relatives of contractor executives were also included in the count when possible. Spouses and relatives were determined based on people who shared the same last name and address as the main contributor. In some cases spouses were jointly listed as contributors.

The analysis focused on vendors who provide legal, consulting, engineering and construction services. Contracts and contributions for subsidiaries were attributed to their parent companies. Universities and other public agencies with government contracts were excluded from the analysis. Organizations that may have other lobbying interests — such as the Hawaii Association of Realtors — were also excluded.

Contributions made at events hosted by Mr. Yonamine were identified by searching for all contributions made to participating candidates within one week of the parties. The Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission requires that contributions be deposited within seven days of receipt.

An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misstated the amount Milton Choy and his associates donated to political campaigns around the time of fund-raising parties hosted by Wesley Yonamine. As the article correctly noted, they donated more than $28,000, not more than $30,000.

How we handle corrections

Blaze Lovell , a reporter in The Times’s Local Investigations Fellowship , writes about government contracts in Hawaii. More about Blaze Lovell

Move over Hawaii, The Azores Islands also bring vibrant beauty (with fewer crowds)

Destinations can be too crowded. Discover the antidote to overcrowded and overpriced vacation spots in " Here Not There: 100 Unexpected Travel Destinations " by National Geographic. The guide unveils imaginative and budget-friendly locales sure to inspire your next adventure, curated by longtime travel writer Andrew Nelson .

If you're looking for warmth, culture and beauty, try The Azores in Portugal instead of Hawaii.

What’s the perfect island chain? The default has always been Hawaii: Its eight principal islands rising from the Pacific’s deep are verdant and vibrant. But if you switch your gaze to the Atlantic, you will find a nine-island archipelago that’s equally lush, with flowering landscapes, cascading waterfalls, black sand beaches, volcanoes, and marine wildlife refuges swarming with animals. Like the Aloha State, the Portuguese Azores are islands where the locals both nurture and protect their unique culture, determined to keep the natural beauty safe from overdevelopment.

And there’s a lot in the Azores worth protecting. The islands are located in the North Atlantic, 2,390 miles (3,850 km) east of Boston and 870 miles (1,400 km) west of Lisbon. Colonized by Portugal in the early 15th century (the Vikings were rumored to have stopped by, too), today the Azores are an autonomous territory with a population of 242,796 (about two-thirds that of Honolulu). Thanks to the warm Gulf Stream and the archipelago’s latitude, the temperature is usually mild throughout the year, ranging in the 60s to 70s Fahrenheit (midteens to 20s Celsius), though it does rain. The islands’ many volcanoes are active, but so far fairly quiet this century. The last big eruption occurred in 1958.

Like in Hawaii, each of the islands of the Azores offers a distinct experience.

◾ The eastern part of the chain is home to Santa Maria, with its numerous vineyards and white-sand beaches. São Miguel is equivalent to the Big Island. Like the island of Hawaii, it exerts a strong influence over the rest of the archipelago and is a dynamic and geologically active place. Its landscape features geysers, volcanic lakes and thermal hot springs.

◾ The central Azores consist of the islands of Terceira, São Jorge, Pico, Faial, and Graciosa. Terceira is home to the oldest city in the Azores, Angra do Heroísmo, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its fertile soil supports numerous vineyards. On Faial, visitors can hike to the extinct Capelinhos volcano. São Jorge is celebrated for its cheese. Rugged, rough-hewn Pico Island is home to the highest mountain in Portugal, 7,713-foot-tall (2,351 m) Mount Pico. Graciosa is known for its iconic star-shaped pastries and red-peaked, Flemish-style windmills, brought by immigrants from Belgium.

◾ The western islands are Flores and Corvo. The former, known as the Island of Flowers, offers a rugged coastline, high cliffs marked by waterfalls (Poço Ribeira do Ferreiro (Alagoinha) being the most famous to see), and seven crater lakes. Flores’s dramatic, verdant landscape and the surrounding turquoise waters often spark comparisons to Kauai.

As more travelers discover the Azores’ allure, the future looks both bright and worrying. Luckily the islands have begun the task to ensure their biodiversity will be safeguarded for the future. In 2019 the Azores became the world’s first archipelago to be named a sustainable tourism destination by EarthCheck, an Australia-based international advisory board. Four of the islands – Flores, Corvo, Gracioso, and São Jorge – are UNESCO biosphere reserves, and the government has established several marine reserves to protect seabirds, fish, sea turtles, whales, and dolphins. The fight to protect paradise is only just getting started.

The Amazing Flora of the Azores

Indigenous or imported, the flowering plants of the Azores play an important role in giving the islands their iconic Instagrammable look. Being one of the world’s most isolated archipelagos, the Azores harbor many unique species, including one of the world’s rarest flowers, Myosotis azorica. Called não-meesqueças , or forget-me-nots, the purple flowers were considered extinct before a cluster of plants was discovered growing on Corvo, the Azores’ smallest island, in 2014. Despite Corvo being a protected UNESCO biosphere reserve, these tiny flowers remain endangered thanks to the appetites of the island’s insatiable goats and sheep.

 In contrast, colorful hydrangeas are not native to the island chain. They are an invasive species believed to have been brought to the island by the Japanese in the late 19th century as decorative plants. Though they’re imported, the flowers have become a symbol of the Azores and grow throughout the archipelago. Faial Island is often called the Blue Island for the azure hydrangeas that blanket its fields and roadsides. Their hue is due to the island’s acidic soil, which deepens the hydrangeas’ rich color. Volcanic eruptions in 1957 and 1958 only added to the fertility. It was Azorean immigrants to the United States who are credited with popularizing the flower in America, especially in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where many of these immigrants settled in the mid-20th century.

This is an excerpt from “ Here Not There: 100 Unexpected Travel Destinations ,”   published on April 2 by Disney Publishing Group. Author Andrew Nelson is an award-winning writer and editor for National Geographic Traveler, who has roamed all 50 states as well as numerous countries for the magazine and website, based in Washington, D.C.