HTA: Hawaii visitor arrivals continue to reach record highs

HONOLULU, Hawaii – George D. Szigeti, President and CEO, Hawai’i Tourism Authority issued the following statement today:

HONOLULU, Hawaii – George D. Szigeti, President and CEO, Hawai’i Tourism Authority issued the following statement today:

Visitor arrivals have remained strong for the first nine months of the year, reaching 6.5 million visitors and pacing just slightly above our projections. However, growth in spending is beginning to plateau; currently we are only 2.6 percent ahead of last year, reaching $11.3 billion.

Hawaii will see a boost in air seats during the fourth quarter. We will welcome three new flights from two new carriers, pushing total air seats to the state to a record 11.8 million for 2015. Virgin America will begin flying from San Francisco to Honolulu in November and to Kahului in December, and Jin Air, a low-cost carrier from South Korea, will begin service from Seoul to Honolulu in December. It is important for us to collaborate with our marketing and industry partners to ensure there is sufficient demand to support these new flights and all of our existing routes.

With lower domestic fuel prices, we anticipate seeing continued growth from our core U.S. markets. However, we will continue to monitor unstable economic conditions in Canada, Japan and China, which could also impact other regions in the Asia-Pacific and our major market areas.

On Dec. 8, the HTA will be holding marketing updates by our partners from China, Taiwan, Korea, Europe, Oceania and our newest market, Southeast Asia. Our contractors will be in town to present their plans for 2016 and provide insight on their respective markets.

VISITOR ARRIVALS REACHED A RECORD HIGH FOR SEPTEMBER BUT VISITOR EXPENDITURES DECLINED 1.2 PERCENT

Total arrivals to the Hawaiian Islands achieved a new record for the month of September, with an increase of 4.7 percent to 652,616 visitors, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA). Growth in arrivals from U.S. West (+6.3% to 248,646) and Canada (+4.2% to 20,504 visitors) more than offset slight declines from U.S. East (-0.6% to 109,813) and Japan (-0.7% to 137,156) compared to September 2014. Arrivals from all other markets rose 4.3 percent to 112,332 visitors.

While visitor volume exceeded last September’s level, lower daily spending across many visitor markets caused a 1.2 percent decline in total visitor expenditures for September 2015 to $1.1 billion. Among the top four visitor markets, only U.S. West showed higher daily spending (+4.6% to $166 per person), which contributed a 6.5 percent growth in visitor expenditures to $366 million. Decreased daily spending resulted in losses in U.S. East (-5.5% to $221.1 million), Japanese (-12.1% to $194.9 million) and Canadian (-0.6% to $38.3 million) visitor expenditures.

All four larger Hawaiian Islands saw growth in arrivals: Kauai (+4.7%), Maui (+4.3%), Hawaii Island (+2.1%) and Oahu (+1.3%) compared to September 2014. Expenditures increased for Maui (+5.7% to $279.1 million) and Kauai (+8.6% to $101.3 million), but declined for Oahu (-4.7% to $560.2 million) and Hawaii Island (-6.2% to $119.2 million).

There were 881,549 total air seats to Hawaii in September 2015, up 2.1 percent from the same month last year. Growth in scheduled seats from Canada (+27.8%), Oceania (+13%), U.S. West (+2.2%) and Japan (+1.6%) offset a 4.9 percent drop in available capacity from Other Asia.

Arrivals by cruise ship climbed 84.2 percent to 24,165 visitors, with 13 cruise ships arriving in September 2015 compared to eight ships in the same month last year.

Year-to-date 2015

Through the first nine months of 2015, total arrivals rose 4.1 percent and visitor spending increased to $11.3 billion (+2.6%). Growth in arrivals from U.S. West (+7.5%) and U.S. East (+2%) offset fewer visitors from Japan (-1%). Expenditures by U.S. West (+6.9% to $4 billion) and Canadian (+3.6% to $804.7 million) visitors increased, counter balancing declines in U.S. East (-1.7% to $2.8 billion) and Japanese (-10.1% to $1.6 billion) visitor expenditures.

Maui (+5.8%), Hawaii Island (+4.6%), Kauai (+4.6%) and Oahu (+2.4%) saw growth in arrivals compared to a year ago. Higher daily spending contributed to increased visitor expenditures on Maui (+6.4% to $3.2 billion) and Kauai (+14.9% to $1.2 billion). Visitor expenditures on Oahu (-0.8% to $5.4 billion) dropped slightly, while visitor expenditures on Hawaii Island (+0.2% to $1.4 billion) remained stable.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

Share to...