Posted on: Wednesday, March 28, 2001
Isles fourth in world traveler spending
By Glenn Scott
Advertiser Staff Writer
A new survey ranks Hawai'i fourth in the nation for the amount of money spent here annually by international visitors.
The Travel Industry Association of America said the $6.8 billion spent in Hawai'i by international travelers trailed only the $16.7 billion spent in Florida, $12.9 billion in California and $8.6 billion in New York in 1998, the latest year for which national figures are available.
Although spending may vary when data for more recent years will be made available soon, the margins suggest rankings won't change much for the top five states. Hawai'i's total was more than twice that of the fifth-ranked state, Texas, which had $3.2 billion in spending. Nevada followed with $2.1 billion.
California ranked first for spending by domestic travelers, at $54.2 billion. Hawai'i was not in that top 10.
Visitor spending figures are crucial to states such as Hawai'i and Florida, which depend on tourism.
William Norman, president of the promotional association, said the spending figures "underscore the powerful economic effect" tourism has on each state.
In Hawai'i, the 1998 figures represented a decline in foreign visits from Japan and East Asia because of the 1997 Asian economic crisis. Visitor arrivals from Asia were down that year almost 11 percent from 1997, and total visitor days dropped by 8 percent.
The trend continued in 1999. By the end of 2000, visitor numbers were roughly equal to those in early 1998, according to state statistics.
Tourism officials are watching this year with concern as Japan's economy continues to stall and the yen remains weak, cutting into the buying power of Japanese visitors to the Islands.
In 1999, Japanese tourists spent an average of $230 a day even though spending fell by 12 percent. That compared with $140 a day for visitors from the western side of the Mainland, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism. Visitors, both domestic and foreign, spent a total of $10.3 billion in 1999.
