Visitor arrivals higher in 2002, but not to pre-9/11 level

By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer

New figures for last year's tourist arrivals showed an improvement over 2001, but many in the industry remain cautious about the future, since Hawai'i has yet to reach the peak visitor levels of 2000 and the threat of war grows.

Nearly 6.4 million visitors came to Hawai'i last year, aided by a boost from the Honolulu Marathon in December.

"We ended the year on an upbeat note. Of course, we are still pretty far down from the year 2000," said Chuck Gee, dean emeritus of the University of Hawai'i School of Travel Industry Management. And a war with Iraq "will be devastating," he said. "It's already had an impact."

Gee said war could lead to a drop of 25 percent to 50 percent in visitors. That would have financial impacts that could last for the rest of the year. Tourism industry leaders say the biggest effect would be among international visitors, who would stop coming to the Islands.

The good news is that numbers for last year show domestic visitors have become a larger segment of Hawai'i's tourism industry. Last year, 4.3 million of them came to Hawai'i, according to preliminary data from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

Hawai'i's tourism industry is still recovering from the aftermath of Sept. 11. But the total number of days domestic visitors spent in the state last year was the highest on record, 45.3 million.

An increase in visitor days is considered an indicator of higher visitor spending, a figure the department will release in coming weeks.

Tourism experts say a proliferation of hotel package deals offering one or two free nights helped lengthen the average stay.

"(The hotels) were out there trying to get as much business as they could this past year," said Joseph Patoskie, associate professor of travel industry management at Hawai'i Pacific University. Whether they can sustain that business may depend on how long the deals will be offered, he said.

On the negative side, the number of days Japanese visitors spent in Hawai'i fell 3.9 percent in 2002, dragging down international visitor figures.

"The economy in Japan is not well," said Glenn Ifuku, DBEDT's acting economics administrator. "The Japanese are also worried about the security issues."

One area of strength was in Japanese honeymooners, up 56.8 percent over last year.

Overall, visitors spent an average of 9.34 days in Hawai'i last year, up from 9.16 days in 2001 and 8.84 days in 2000.

For December, the number of visitor arrivals totaled 566,539 — a 16 percent increase over year-ago figures and higher than the 580,461 in December 2000.

The Honolulu Marathon in the first week of December attracted a surprisingly large number of visitors, including 16,000 from Japan. That helped boost international arrivals in December to 208,837, up 40 percent from 148,853 a year ago, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

But the December figures still lag international arrivals in December 2000, which totaled 225,010.

"It's very important for us to have a strong first quarter in 2003," said Joseph Toy, president of Hospitality Advisors LLC. "I think it's going to set the tone for the rest of the year."

DBEDT also released preliminary figures on visitor spending in November, showing $761.2 million in visitor expenditures for the month, up 16.7 percent over the post-Sept. 11 figure a year earlier.

Average spending per person per day was $168 in November, down 2.3 percent from $171 a year ago. For the year to date, the average was $171 per day, up from $169 in 2001.

Year-to-date visitor expenditures totaled $9.2 billion, up 2.8 percent from $8.9 billion the year earlier.