Posted on: Friday, August 23, 2002

Cruise visitors to islands increase more than 50%

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Cruise visitors to the Islands surged more than 50 percent in the first half of the year, carried by more and bigger ships, and approaching in just six months the entire total of cruise passengers who came to Hawai'i last year.

Twenty-three cruise ships carried 118,515 passengers on 67 trips around the Islands from January through June, up 53.1 percent from the same time a year ago, according to data released yesterday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

Last year, 20 ships made 75 trips but carried only 77,385 passengers over the same six-month period, the state said. For all of 2001, Hawai'i saw 160,000 cruise passengers, according to the North West Cruise Ship Association.

Some of the increase can be attributed to the Honolulu home-porting of Norwegian Cruise Line's 2,200-passenger Norwegian Star, which began interisland cruises in December. The cruise ship carries about 130 more passengers a week than American Classic Voyages' 1,212-passenger Patriot and 860-passenger Independence, which were operating in the Islands the same time early last year before the company filed for bankruptcy and shut down in October.

But even accounting for Norwegian's increased interisland passenger load compared to American Classic, arrivals still jumped more than 45 percent.

"We have certainly seen an increase, primarily because so many of the ships carry so many more passengers, not just Norwegian," said Jeanne Herbst, director of direct commerce for Mauna Loa Macadamia Nuts in Hilo, which buses cruise passengers directly from the harbor to its factory.

The state's study also showed that the cruises are primarily attracting out-of-state visitors, with only 3,568 Hawai'i residents cruising interisland waters for the first half of the year.

The largest group of out-of-state visitors — 56.2 percent — were from the East Coast, followed by 31.3 percent from the West Coast, 5.8 percent from Canada and 2 percent from Europe.

"The continued growth in cruise passengers to the Islands is very encouraging, especially in light of the challenges the tourism industry has faced during the past year," said Seiji Naya, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

The state study found that all cruise ship passengers saw O'ahu, and more than 90 percent visited each of the major Neighbor Islands. Maui got the biggest Neighbor Island share, with 95.3 percent, followed by the 93.6 percent who said they sailed to the Big Island and 90.7 percent to Kaua'i.

Even though Norwegian makes regular Big Island stops in Hilo instead of Kailua village in Kona, other cruise lines still bring business for Maggie Bell's Body Glove Cruises out of the Kailua Pier.

"Norwegian doesn't come to Kona except for rare exceptions," Bell said. "But the cruise ship business is booming. It's the new concept to travel for people who did it the other way."

The survey also found that more than half of the cruise passengers — 52.4 percent — said they had been to Hawai'i before. Only 33.8 percent were first-time visitors.

"That excites me," said George Applegate, executive director of the Big Island Visitors Bureau. "We have an opportunity to have land-based visitors return in the very near future on cruise ships and that trickles down to the small-business person. That's a real important point for all of Hawai'i."

But some in the travel industry noted that repeat visitors also tend to spend less in a location because they've seen much of it already.

The state survey noted that the average cruise visitor to Hawai'i during the first half of 2002 spent approximately $91 a day on such things as tours, restaurants, entertainment, shopping and souvenirs while on shore. Typical noncruise visitors spent $176 per day.

The biggest cruise-ship spenders were from the East Coast, at $97 per person per day. Next were Europeans, at $87; Canadians, $85; and those from the West Coast, $83. The 3,568 Hawai'i residents who took cruises, by comparison, averaged only $37 each per day.

But Applegate, of the Big Island Visitors Bureau, said he was not discouraged by the low per-day spending of cruise line passengers in the survey.

"If most of them are return visitors, then the way I look at it is that they've been here and done that and they have a choice," Applegate said. "Either they're going to go to another location or they've decided to see Hawai'i in a different way."