Hawaii is a U.S. state that is an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. Of the eight major islands, Hawaii, Oahu, Maui, and Kauai have major tourism industries. Tourism is limited on Molokai and Lānai, and access to Niʻihau and Kahoʻolawe is prohibited.
The state's favorable climate, tropical landscape, beaches, and culture make it among the U.S.'s most visited states. In 2017 alone, according to state government data, there were over 9.4 million visitors to the Hawaiian Islands with expenditures of over $16 billion. These values continue to increase over time as the amount of visitor expenditures moved to $17.72 billion in 2019 and $20.73 billion in 2023. This number remained stagnant in 2024 as total visitor spending equated to roughly $20.68 billion.
Due to the mild year-round weather, tourist travel is popular throughout the year. However, the summer months and major holidays are the most popular times for outsiders to visit, especially when residents of the rest of the United States are looking to escape from cold winter weather. The Japanese, with their economic and historical ties to Hawaii and the US as well as relative geographical proximity, make up the largest group of inbound international travelers to the islands, reaching 1,568,609 in 2017.
History of travel to Hawaii
Hawaii was first populated between 1000 and 1200 AD by people of Polynesian origin. Subsequent Western contact began as a consequence of European Enlightenment exploration and was continued by Protestant ministers of New England origin in the early 19th century.
16th century According to Hawaiian tradition, a vessel wrecked at Keʻei near Kealakekua Bay in the 1560s with only two survivors: the captain and his sister. Their penitent posture led to the naming of the place as Kūlou; they later intermarried with the native population and their descendants became prominent chiefs. The timing coincides with the voyage of a small fleet of three vessels commanded by Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón, who departed Mexico on October 31, 1569; during that voyage, two ships disappeared after a storm.
Spaniard Juan Gaetano, who had served as the pilot of a 1522 expedition led by Ruy López de Villalobos, reportedly discovered the Hawaiian Islands during that voyage. The official narrative of the voyage reported that a group of islands were found after approximately 30 days of sailing west from Mexico, which were named the Islas del Rey; these were later speculated to be the Caroline Islands or Marshall Islands, not Hawaii. The coordinates of Gaetano's discovery were not reported outside the Spanish Empire until 1743, when a manuscript chart was captured from the annual treasure galleon by , commanded by Captain George Anson; although the latitude was approximately correct and the physical features were similar to the Hawaiian Islands, the longitude was 17° east of the actual position of Hawaii. The Spanish Hydrographical Department reported in 1865 that an ancient manuscript chart confirmed Gaetano's discovery from 1555, which he had named Islas de Mesa. continues as to whether the Spanish visited the islands before James Cook. 18th century
In 1748, Anson published a redrawn version of the captured chart in A Voyage Round the World, Direct link to scan of Plate XLI one of the best-selling books of its day. Anson's chart showed the Pacific to be relatively barren, but the three voyages of James Cook would add significant detail.
The first recorded western visitor to Hawaii was Captain James Cook on his fatal third and final voyage in the Pacific. Cook's ships first sighted Niʻihau and Kauai on January 19, 1778, and anchored near Waimea the following evening. As described by James Jackson Jarves in 1843, during the first visit "the natives manifested the greatest respect and kindness toward their visitors, and both parties indulged in a lucrative trade, yet [the natives'] propensity for thieving was continually manifested ... Theft or lying were to them no crimes. Success in either was a virtue, and it was not until several severe lessons, in regard to the enormity of the former had been received, that their discretion got the better of temptation." He went on to add "the commander manifested a laudable humanity, in endeavoring to shield the population from the evil effects which so inevitably result from connection between foreign seamen and the native females. But his efforts were vain. If the discipline of his own crew could have been strictly enforced, the eagerness of the women was not to be repressed."
Cook's fleet departed on February 2, returning to Hawaii in November, when they began resupplying their ships and mapping the coastline. They anchored in Kealakekua Bay in January 1779, and stayed for 19 days; although they departed on February 6, they were forced to return for repairs on February 11. A series of misunderstandings would lead Cook to attempt to kidnap the aliʻi nui of the island of Hawaii, Kalaniʻōpuʻu, resulting in Cook's death.
19th century
Prominent 19th-century travelers to Hawaii included journalist Isabella Bird, along with a number of American and British authors. Tourist visits remained around 2,000 per year from 1872 to 1898. American writers include Mark Twain aboard the steamship Ajax as a travel journalist with the Sacramento Daily Union in 1866, and Herman Melville, who deserted from his whaler in 1843 and later found passage back to the mainland that summer aboard . Twain's unfinished novel of Hawaii was incorporated into his A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, with King Arthur bearing striking similarities to Kamehameha V, the first reigning monarch Twain was to meet. The "modernizing" potential offered by the Connecticut Yankee from the future is a satire of the potentially negative Protestant Missionary influence on Hawaiian life. Melville's writing of the Pacific includes Typee and Omoo (considered factual travel accounts when published) and his Pacific experiences would develop into the portrayal of Queequeg in Moby-Dick.
British writers include the Scot Robert Louis Stevenson, whose subsequent In the South Seas was published based on his voyages.In the South Seas (1896) & (1900) Chatto & Windus; republished by The Hogarth Press (1987). A collection of Stevenson's articles and essays on his travels in the Pacific During his stay in the islands, he wrote a stunning defense of Father Damien's work with the lepers of Kalaupapa against the politicized views of Father Damien's Protestant detractors. Consequently, Hawaii is home to the eponymous Stevenson Middle School. Stevenson later died in Samoa.
Regular commercial passenger, cargo, and mail service to Hawaii via steamship started in 1870 with the North Pacific Transportation Company of Australia. The Oceanic Steamship Company was incorporated by John D. Spreckels, son of sugar baron Claus Spreckels, on December 24, 1881, to establish a steamship line between San Francisco and Hawaii. Oceanic signed a contract in July 1882 with William Cramp & Sons for two "first-class iron steamships" intended for the Honolulu route; these were completed in 1883 as the and . Spreckels traveled to the East Coast intending to contract for the building of two more steamships, but returned in March 1886 after having purchased and from John Elder & Company.
William Matson had served as captain of Claus Spreckels's yacht (named Lurline) and in turn, Spreckels helped Matson purchase his first ship, the (named for Spreckels's daughter), which made its first voyage to Hawaii in 1882. Matson would go on to found the Matson Navigation Company, whose genesis was in the first , purchased to replace the smaller Emma Claudina; that first Lurline was sold to Matson by Spreckels and undertook a two-month maiden sail from San Francisco to Hawaii in 1887, marking the start of Matson's commercial passenger service to the Hawaiian Islands.
19th-century development in Hawaii played a big part in the increase of tourism that continued into the 21st century. In 1888, a writer for the Los Angeles Herald extolled "culture, refinement, and a hospitality so cordial that one scarcely meets it elsewhere" joined with "the island air that is kept pure and sweet by the gentle trade winds' refreshing currents". Advanced technologies including cars, marketing, hotels, and shopping malls allow vacationers to visit a modernized tropical island, which contributes heavily to steady growth in tourism. Conversely, the Native Hawaiian population continues to decrease, resulting in a loss of authentic Hawaiian culture on the islands, similar to other Oceanian islands.Tracie Ku'uipo Losch & Momi Kamahele, Hawaiʻi: Center of the Pacific(The Contemporary Pacific, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1993),495–499.
20th century
In 1907, Jack London and his wife Charmian sailed to Hawaii, learning the "royal sport" of surfing and travelling by horseback to Haleakalā and Hana, as chronicled in his book The Cruise of the Snark. 1929 saw 22,000 tourists visit Hawaii, while the number of tourists exceeded 1 million for the first time in 1967.
Marine service
The second , completed in 1908, was the first steamship built for Matson; she was designed to accommodate passengers (51) in addition to cargo. Matson added , which made her maiden voyage from San Francisco to Honolulu in February 1910. Both of these ships were named after the daughters of prominent executives: Lurline Matson, daughter of founder William Matson; and Wilhelmina Tenney, daughter of Edward Davies Tenney, the chairman of Castle & Cooke, the Honolulu agent for Matson.
By 1913, Matson was building more passenger liners for the Honolulu run, and . Direct service from Hawaii to Los Angeles was established by Manoa in October 1914. Another Matson steamship, , sister to Matsonia, was launched in 1916 at San Francisco, the largest passenger ship then constructed on the West Coast. However, Matson's Hawaiian routes were interrupted by World War I, as the government announced plans to requisition five ships in 1917; that was later reduced to three: Wilhelmina, Matsonia, and Maui, which served as troop transports before they were released in 1919. Maui made 13 roundtrips to France, carrying 37,344 troops; Matsonia, 14 roundtrips (38,974); and Wilhelmina, 13 roundtrips (23,014).
Growth in tourist travel followed World War I. Matson opened its eponymous headquarters on Market Street in 1924, and conducted marine operations via berths and warehouses at Piers 30–32 in San Francisco; Castle & Cooke also moved into new offices in Honolulu at approximately the same time, and Matson ships docked at Aloha Pier, surrounding Aloha Tower. Matson acquired the Oceanic Steamship operation in May 1926, extending its reach past Hawaii to Australia and New Zealand, and introduced the , the first of its four "White Fleet" ocean liners for Hawaii service, in 1927; at the time, she was the largest passenger steamship built in the United States. Malolo was one part of a three-pronged effort devised by William P. Roth, the son-in-law of Captain Matson and Matson's general manager, and E.D. Tenney, named president of Matson after Matson's death in 1917, to develop the modern Hawaiian tourist industry; a luxury hotel (completed in 1927 as the Royal Hawaiian, in partnership with the Territorial Hotel Company) and golf course (Waialae Country Club) would also help transform Hawaii into a premier resort destination. However, Malolo had an inauspicious start to her career, colliding with the steamship in heavy fog during sea trials in May 1927; despite the delay to inaugurating modern ocean liner service, annual tourist traffic to Hawaii jumped from 17,500 (1927) to 22,000 (1929) until the Great Depression started, cutting annual traffic to less than 11,000 tourists in 1932 and 1933.