New data from the state's Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism showed that visitor spending across the state increased to about $1.89 billion last month.
That’s nearly 40% more than January of last year and an increase of more than 17% from before the pandemic.
The department stated that the economic recovery was primarily driven by U.S. mainland visitors. Data showed that 775,132 visitors came by air and 16,648 arrived on cruise ships. The average length of stay was 10 days.
Additionally, international spending shows signs of recovery but remains well below pre-pandemic levels. There were more than 30,000 visitors from Japan last month, compared to 2,850 visitors in January of last year. The latest figures on Japanese arrivals are still down more than 73% from 2019.
About 56,500 visitors arrived from Canada — a 140% increase compared to January 2022. Canadian visitors were the biggest international market in January, according to the report.
Nearly 90,000 visitors came from other international markets, including Oceania, Philippines and Europe. That's 20% less than in January 2019.
Overall, visitor arrivals were down by 3% in January compared to the same month in 2019.
