October arrivals down 1.5%

By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer

Tourism from the Mainland to Hawai'i is holding steady, but a stubbornly weak Japanese tourism industry led to a 1.5 percent decline in the number of visitors coming to the Islands last month.

A total of 504,971 visitors came to the state in October, down from 512,613 a year ago, according to state figures release by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism yesterday.

That includes a 1.6 percent increase in visitors from the western United States, offset by drops in visitors from the eastern United States (down 0.3 percent), Japan (down 4.7 percent) and Canada (down 11.6 percent).

Tourism executives have seen solid bookings for the holidays, although Japanese tourism numbers likely will remain lower than last year through December.

"That's what really pulls it down," said Marsha Wienert, Gov. Linda Lingle's tourism liaison.

Every island saw fewer visitors in October, from a 1.2 percent decline on Maui to a 15.8 percent decline on Lana'i. O'ahu had a 3.1 percent drop in visitor arrivals.

On any given day, Hawai'i had an average of 149,502 visitors, down 1 percent from October 2002.

The overall decline shows the fragility of the recovery that appeared to be ramping up in late summer, with 1.3 percent increases in visitor arrivals in August and September over the previous year.

One of the biggest reasons for the tepid turnout is continuing weakness in the Japanese economy. Still, the declines in Japanese tourism are narrowing, showing some recovery from double-digit drops earlier this year traced to the war with Iraq and the SARS outbreak.

Although fewer tourists came to the Islands, the average length of stay increased 0.5 percent, to 9.18 days.

Wienert said the total days domestic visitors spent in Hawai'i was the second-highest October figure on record, at nearly 3.589 million, up 0.6 percent from last year. The highest on record is 3.593 million days in October 1999.

That is a positive sign, Wienert said, because visitor days are an indicator of tourism spending. "People are out traveling again, and they're choosing to come here," she said.

But when international visitors are included, there was a 1 percent decline in the total days visitors stayed in the state last month.

For the year through October, the number of visitors to Hawai'i is down 1.1 percent. The number of visitors from the Mainland was up more than 2 percent in the period, but Japanese arrivals were down 12.4 percent. Canadian arrivals were up 9.7 percent.

Other highlights from state tourism data released yesterday:

• Fifty-seven cruise ships toured Hawai'i for the year through October, bringing 192,326 visitors from out of state. That's up 2.4 percent from the same period last year.

• Tourists spent $7.6 billion in Hawai'i for the year through September, the most recent figures available. That is a 5.5 percent increase over the same period in 2002.

• Japanese visitors spent an average of nearly $240 per day in Hawai'i in September, the highest of all visitors. But U.S. East visitors spent the most per trip, at $1,847 on average. All visitors spent less per trip than in September 2002, except for visitors from the western United States, who increased their spending 4.6 percent, to an average of $1,646 per trip.

Reach Kelly Yamanouchi at 535-2470 or at kyamanouchi@honoluluadvertiser.com.

• • •