Posted on: Friday, September 26, 2003
August visitor arrivals up 1.3%
| • | Chart: Arrivals from Mainland help again |
By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer
The number of visitor arrivals in Hawai'i rose slightly last month with signs that the Japanese market may be rebounding, but total arrivals remain lower for the year to date.
Overall, 625,895 visitors came in August. That number is up 1.3 percent from 617,899 in August 2002, according to figures released yesterday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Year-to-date through August, the 5,998,519 total visitor arrivals were down 1.3 percent from the first eight months of 2002, a period when heightened fears in the aftermath of Sept. 11 hurt the travel industry.
And in a somewhat encouraging sign, the decline in higher-spending Japanese visitors appears to be slowing. In August Japanese arrivals fell 10.3 percent, which was an improvement over July's nearly 20 percent plunge.
"Isn't that fabulous?" said Marsha Wienert, Gov. Linda Lingle's tourism liaison. "We're over the war. We're over SARS. We've had some good campaigns in the Japanese market, so hopefully we'll see some new business from that market."
But David Uchiyama, a Starwood Hotels & Resorts spokesman, suggested it may be too early to celebrate.
"We've seen an increase in Japanese guests, but we haven't seen any sustainable pattern yet," he said.
Through August, Japanese visitor arrivals were off 15.3 percent, which was still slightly better than the 17.1 percent drop posted through July.
During August, Mainland visitors continued to offset the lower international arrivals — with domestic visitors increasing 5.1 percent compared to an 8 percent drop in international visitors.
There were some encouraging signs during the month for Hawai'i's $10 billion tourism industry, with new August highs set for numbers of Mainland arrivals and total visitor days.
Domestic arrivals totaled 449,761 last month, topping the previous August record of 427,851 set in 2002.
Total visitor days, which is considered a good gauge of the tourism industry's economic contribution, increased 2.6 percent to nearly 6 million as travelers took advantage of airfare and room deals and extended their average stay in the state.
"It is a buyers' market out there right now," said Uchiyama.
Also in August, the number of incentive, meeting and convention trips to Hawai'i increased 3.4 percent, largely because of the American Society of Association Executive convention and its 4,000 visitors.
Uchiyama said the convention business is helping while the Japanese visitor market remains choppy.
On O'ahu, year-to-date visitor arrivals fell 6.8 percent, while Big Island arrivals fell 1 percent. Kaua'i suffered a 1.4 percent decline. Visitor arrivals on three islands increased: Maui's visitor count rose by 5.7 percent; Moloka'i, 31.6 percent; and Lana'i, 18.4 percent.
Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8093.
