Visitor spending down $800 million last year

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

The decline in Hawai'i visitors last year, largely because of Sept. 11, took an $800 million bite out of total visitor spending for the year, according to figures released yesterday.

Total visitor spending for the year dropped 7.1 percent, to $10.1 billion from $10.9 billion the previous year, according to the data from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism

Overall spending for East Coast visitors dropped 9 percent to $2.7 billion. Japanese spending fell 10 percent to $2.1 billion. And West Coast tourists saw only a 2.4 percent increase in overall spending, to $3.4 billion.

Combined, the three groups make up 82 percent of the $10.1 billion total that tourists spent in the islands last year.

There were otherwise modest signs of optimism. The visitors who did come stayed an average of 9.11 days — a 2.6 percent increase over the previous year. And they spent an average of $2 more per day, for a total of $170 per person.

"Despite some weakness in total expenditure and arrivals," said DBEDT Director Seiji Naya, "the longer stays and higher daily spending are encouraging."

The data can be useful to help Hawai'i's struggling tourism industry plan for the rest of the year. But DBEDT officials have yet to make an economic forecast based on the study.

"We will use this as part of our forecast going forward," said Pearl Imada Iboshi, DBEDT's economic research director. "Since we just finished the numbers, we haven't incorporated them into anything yet."

Japanese tourists continued to spend more per person per day — $235. Per person spending for East Coast visitors dropped 3.4 percent to $164 per day. But West Coast tourists spent 2.4 percent more per day, or $148 per person.

"The increased spending of visitors from the U.S. West is a good sign," Naya said. "Their spending of $3.5 billion represents the largest portion of total expenditures, at 34.4 percent."

Surprisingly, Japanese visitors spent more per day in the months after Sept. 11.

Their 9.6 percent growth in the final quarter of the year — or $254 per day — was the highest daily average for all quarters in 2000 and 2001.

"We certainly saw the bottom fall out in terms of Japanese arrivals," said Joseph Toy, president of Hospitality Advisors LLC. But the Japanese visitors who came after Sept. 11 stayed as much as half-a day longer, Toy said, "so that drove per trip spending. It's actually fairly significant because you have to book another day in a hotel and buy all of those meals."

Canadian spending also shot up an astounding 27.9 percent compared to the fourth quarter for 2000. The $177 per person average helped push the Canadians to spend the most of any group per trip, an average of $2,170.

"Canadians were a particularly strong market," Toy said. "They tend to be budget travelers but because they stay longer, they tend to outspend other markets."

But spending by both West Coast and East Coast visitors fell in the fourth quarter.

Daily spending by West Coast tourists dropped 5.1 percent overall for the quarter to $160 per day; East Coast spending fell 11.5 percent to $166 per day.

The entire report can be found at the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism's Web site: www.state.hi.us/dbedt/index.html.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.