Visitor spending up on Neighbor Islands
Advertiser Staff
Tourists spent more per day on Neighbor Islands in the first three months of this year than they did in 2002 in another sign that tourism continues to rebound.
advertiser library photo • Apr. 26, 2001
Out-of-state visitors spent an average $181 per person, per day on Maui in the first three months of this year, up from $172 a year ago, according to figures released yesterday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.
For first quarter 2003, out-of-state visitors spent more on Neighbor Islands than they did in 2002, according to a survey. Pictured is the Sheraton Maui at Ka'anapali.
Daily spending by out-of-state visitors on the Big Island was $143 per person, up from $138 a year earlier. Spending on Moloka'i was $77 per person, up from $74.
The only Neighbor Island to experience a decline in spending by out-of-state visitors was Kaua'i, where tourists spent $144 per person, per day, down from $148 in the first quarter of 2002.
The average per-person, per-day spending for the entire state was $165.20, up from $161.60 a year ago.
Lana'i numbers were not included because the sample size was too small, the agency said.
Data collected are from out-of-state visitors who arrived on each Neighbor Island by air and do not include those who toured the Islands by cruise ships.
The survey confirmed a trend among visitors of going directly to Neighbor Islands without stopping on O'ahu. On Maui, for example, only 17 percent of the out-of-state visitors had also been to O'ahu, down from 35.5 percent in the first quarter of 2002.
More of the out-of-state visitors surveyed (75.2 percent) stayed exclusively on Maui compared to those who visited O'ahu (53.0 percent) in the first quarter of 2002.
On Kaua'i, 31.6 percent of the visitors stopped on O'ahu, compared with 48.5 percent a year ago. And on the Big Island, 34.9 percent visited O'ahu as well, down from 51.3 percent a year ago.
