Mainland tourists give state a boost
By Katherine NIchols
Advertiser Staff Writer
As Hawai'i's No. 1 industry struggles to regain the footing it lost six months ago, tourists from the Mainland are providing a much-needed boost: In the past month, the number of visitors arriving from North America has returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
Fueling this is a surge of arrivals from the West Coast, where the number of visitors has, in recent weeks, climbed above or been even with 2001 levels.
In February, buoyed by the Pro Bowl, Hawai'i drew 2.8 percent more Mainland visitors than the same month in 2001 — the first such increase since mid-2001.
"It looks like the trends are moving in the right direction," said David Carey, president and chief executive officer of Outrigger Hotels & Resorts. "We see the pace of new bookings out of North America at normal levels."
The strength of the Mainland tourist market — bolstered by a surprisingly vibrant economy — comes as welcome news for an industry that was wracked by the dramatic drop in business in the weeks immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Hotels, retailers, airlines and restaurants laid off or cut hours for hundreds of workers.
Still, while domestic tourism appears to be getting back on track, it hasn't been enough to offset continued sluggish numbers in other arrivals, including the Japanese market.
Overall arrivals remain 8 to 10 percent below last year, according to the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
"These numbers are not good," said Rick Egged, president of the Waikiki Improvement Association. Recovery is happening, he said, but "Waikiki is still suffering."
Nearly three months of lost business has not been replaced, and shrinking booking windows have left many industry leaders white-knuckled about whether the rebound in visitor numbers will be sustained.
"We used to be able to see a lot 6-8 weeks out," said Carey, "and now I can't even tell you."
East Coast visitors, who are courted by the tourism industry because they tend to stay longer, have not yet returned in year-ago numbers. That could be because they were more affected by the Sept. 11 attacks and want to stay closer to home, analysts said.
And travelers from the West Coast, where flights are abundant and travel time relatively brief, have the luxury of shopping for deals and delaying decisions, said Joseph Toy, president and chief executive of Honolulu-based hotel consulting firm Hospitality Advisors LLC.
The booking window is often less than 30 days from the West Coast, said Ken Phillips, director of corporate communications and promotions for Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays. That makes it hard for businesses to plan ahead and hire back workers who may have been laid off after Sept. 11.
In the past few months, the Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau has put more effort into promoting Hawai'i east of the Rockies because of the promise of market growth from that area.
Visitors from the east usually represent a higher socioeconomic group. They plan ahead, travel farther and therefore stay longer, and consequently spend far more per trip than their West Coast counterparts.
Phillips says he is seeing "some good, solid movement from the East Coast."
By the end of this year, Phillips said he expects his company will at least have equaled last year's results, and may even exceed them. Phillips said he expects to move 500,000 visitors through the Islands this year.
The arrival of the Norwegian Star in December helped prevent any decline in cruise ship visitors after the Patriot and the Independence disappeared with American Classic Voyages' bankruptcy filing last October. Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays is Norwegian Cruise Line's exclusive wholesale company on the Mainland, and Phillips reported "strong bookings."
The Hawai'i Convention Center also is showing signs of progress. In January, the Center booked eight new events for 2003 and 2004, compared with six in January last year, said Sandra Moreno, vice president of meetings, conventions and incentives for the bureau.
The eight bookings represent about 26,000 room nights.
The Center also garnered 14 new tentative bookings in January for future years, representing over 100,000 room nights.
In all, the Center will be host to 30 off-shore events with about 100,000 attendees in 2002. Though Moreno said that some attrition is expected, the bureau believes this market is "back on pace."
Now that the domestic tourism industry is bringing tourism numbers back to pre-Sept. 11 levels, it can focus on getting bookings in earlier and returning to the prices they were able to charge a year ago.
