LOS ANGELES, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The cumulative expenditure loss to the tourism of the Big Island of Hawaii inflicted by the eruption of the Kilauea volcano may reach approximately 200 million U.S. dollars, a study found.

According to the latest study emailed to Xinhua on Saturday by Dr. Mark Kimura, an affiliate faculty member of the Department of Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, the Big Island may have already lost 38,000 potential visitors and around 50 million dollars in potential tourism expenditure in May and June.

"Since Hawaii's tourism has been growing steadily, this is clearly unusual," wrote Kimura.

The Big Island of Hawaii may have lost 17,000 potential visitors and 22.7 million dollars in potential tourism expenditure in May and 21,000 potential visitors and 27.5 million dollars in potential tourism expenditure in June, the peak month of the loss.

He said besides the loss of tourists' expenditures, there's usually a "ripple effect" among tourism-related businesses, such as the impact on local workers in the industry and sales of indigenous goods.

But George D. Szigeti, president and CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, noted that Hawaii's tourism industry did "extremely well in the first half of 2018 in all key categories."

Kilauea has been erupting nearly continuously since early May, which has prompted closure of two-thirds of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in the Big Island. The volcano is one of the youngest and most active volcanoes in the world.