Tourism numbers for August were released at the end of September, and there’s been a decline.
According to the Governor’s office, total spending by visitors in August 2026 was $1.59 billion, which is a decline of nearly 10% compared to August 2025.
Overall visitor numbers went down as well. Additionally, the data shows that, on average, visitors spent less time on the islands compared to last year.
A big factor behind the decline was the storms that impacted Hawaiʻi in 2026, like Hurricane Lala and Tropical Storm Moke.
These storms didn’t just impact tourism numbers, however; they also took a toll on the state’s agriculture — and for businesses that rely on both industries to turn a profit, the impact can be severe.
One such business is Mānoa Chocolate, which sells confections and coffee from several brick and mortar locations across the state.
HPR spoke with the company’s founder, Dylan Butterbaugh, to hear how the company’s been faring.
“We suffered a lot with the Kona storms … and it ended up causing a lot of disease,” he told HPR. “We've lost up to 10% of our orchard from just weak, sick trees getting attacked by beetles after.”
But such setbacks are par for the course in the agricultural industry, and they’re equipped with best practices to recover from the losses.
“We put on a good attitude, and we plant more trees, and we graft onto it or clean it out and just keep going,” Butterbaugh said. “Overall, it's still going really well.”
Fluctuations in tourism numbers are another unfortunate reality of doing business in Hawaiʻi, but not one that they’re unprepared for — and thankfully, though visitors may come and go, their sweet tooth will always stick around.
“There are still people here, and they do fortunately like chocolate and coffee, so we're still in business,” as Butterbaugh put it.
“We want to support Hawaiʻi agriculture. We want to grow things that you can add value to here.”
This story aired on The Conversation on Oct. 2, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
