Tourism down $900 million

By John Duchemin
Advertiser Staff Writer

About 600,000 to 650,000 fewer visitors came to Hawai'i last year than in 2000, the largest year-to-year decline in state history.

Preliminary visitor arrival numbers for 2001, which the state plans to release next week, are projected to be within about 30,000 of the estimate in December of 6.32 million — about a 9 percent drop from the year before.

The numbers are a sobering reflection of what is ailing the state's economy and its $10 billion tourism industry today. Fewer visitors have meant lower spending — a drop of about $900 million from 2000 — and greatly reduced profits for tourism businesses.

To cope, hotels, retailers, airlines and other employers have laid off thousands of workers, causing the total number of jobs in the state to drop by 11,000 in 2001 and sending economic shock waves throughout the Islands.

Much of the drop is because of the Sept. 11 attacks, which caused people to postpone vacations, cut spending and avoid flying.

But recessions both in Japan and the U.S. Mainland were looming before Sept. 11 and visitor counts were already down from record 2000 levels.

Arrivals are forecast to get back on track by mid-2003, but many variables make the outlook uncertain.