Travelers from the Mainland keep visitor industry afloat
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Domestic airlines are expected to add more than 296,500 new Hawai'i-bound seats this year at the same time that Asia's largest carrier, Japan Airlines, has cut back for the summer because of SARS fears.
The sharp contrast underscores the continuing importance of Mainland tourists, who became even more crucial after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
For domestic flights, "It looks like it's going to be a record high," said Chris Kam, director of market trends for the Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau. The 2003 estimate of 5.76 million domestic visitors would top the previous 2000 high of 5.69 million tourists, Kam said.
But for Japanese travel, Kam said, the forecast is "a progressive weakening of the market."
Duty-free retailer DFS Hawai'i, which relies on Japanese customers, has cut store operations by two hours a day in the past few months. So last week's announcement by JAL was "certainly disappointing," said DFS Group vice president Sharon Weiner. "It's obviously a concern."
JAL's announcement resulted from the lingering SARS epidemic, the company said. It follows a shift to more cost-conscious Japanese visitors and an overall decline in Japanese travel since Sept. 11 and through the Iraq War.
"SARS has proven to be a much more significant concern for people in terms of their desire to actually move around, to literally get on an airplane," said Tony Vericella, president of the Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau.
Last year, 1.47 million Japanese visited the Islands. Through mid-May, Japanese carriers have flown in 757,000 seats, according to the HVCB. That's a 3.9 percent increase over the same period last year, though not all those seats were necessarily full.
And the tourist industry expects to attract only 1.35 million Japanese visitors this year, Vericella said. And even that number may be optimistic.
"Given the level of drop-off that occurred," Vericella said, "that would be a good sign if that number is achieved."
Through June, the HVCB projects a total of 873,485 Japanese seats. That number will be down 3 percent for the first half of 2002 and off 8.8 percent compared to the first six months of 2001.
At the same time, domestic carriers have been restoring or announcing new flights to and from Hawai'i:
• United Airlines on Thursday added a fourth daily round-trip flight starting next month between Honolulu and San Francisco as part of 162 flights the company restored around the world. United officials said the restoration was a response to increased demand following the Iraq War.
• Delta Air Lines earlier said it plans to reinstate Mainland service from Honolulu with a nonstop flight to its Atlanta home base beginning Aug. 1.
• For the summer, American Airlines will add a second Los Angeles-to-Kona flight and a second Los Angeles-to-Lihu'e flight, both beginning June 15.
• ATA Airline Inc. said it will add 10 more seasonal summer flights per week from San Francisco to Honolulu beginning in June.
• Tour operator Hawaiian Vacations is offering weekly, nonstop flights from Boise, Idaho, and Spokane, Wash., to Maui through North American Airlines from November through next April.
• Last month, Continental Airlines announced a new nonstop flight between Kahului and its Houston home base starting June 28.
• Aloha Airlines also announced it will start daily service between Reno, Nev., and Honolulu July 1.
"We could have been in a lot worse shape had it not been for the U.S. market," said Joseph Toy, president of Hospitality Advisors LLC.
Tourism officials are particularly excited about the Houston and Atlanta flights because those cities offer easy connections for East Coast visitors, who tend to stay longer and spend more than tourists from the West Coast.
Through last November, East Coast tourists spent an average of $163.50 a day compared with $138.60 a day for West Coast visitors, according to the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Frankie Quinabo, a travel agent for Carefree Tours & Travel, hopes the flights attract tourists from new markets, especially visitors who have never been to Hawai'i.
"Some of the airlines have great introductory rates to get new clients," she said. "It might be a way to get people here who wouldn't normally come."
Weiner, at the same time, is thinking ahead for the return of the Japanese flights.
"There's a hangover effect from 9-11 that continues, and now you put SARS on top of it," she said. "The good news is that once the crisis is over in Japan, there will be a considerable amount of pent-up demand to travel to Hawai'i."
Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.
