October visitors set record
By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hurricanes in the Caribbean, honeymooners seeking paradise, a weaker dollar and lots more airline seats combined to make last month another record for Mainland tourist arrivals in Hawai'i.
The state is on track to match — or possibly top — its best year in tourist arrivals ever: the year 2000, when 6.95 million visitors came to the Islands. Arrivals for the first 10 months of this year have reached 5.76 million, just 76,000 shy of the same period in 2000.
"Hawai'i's visitor industry has had exceptional growth this year," said state tourism liaison Marsha Wienert. "Contributing to the October increase was a 10.4 percent growth in airline seats."
Airlines are responding to increased demand for Hawai'i travel prompted by several trends:
• The popularity of a Hawai'i honeymoon. This market was up 13.6 percent in October.
• A weak dollar makes travel to Europe expensive and gives East Coast residents another reason to choose Hawai'i instead.
• The Japanese yen is stronger, meaning the Islands are on sale for visitors from Japan.
• Hurricanes that swept through the Caribbean and Florida — competitive destinations — in August and September also had some impact.
It all added up to 560,134 visitors in October, up 9.7 percent compared with the same month last year, according to state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism numbers released yesterday.
The bright spot was visitor arrivals from the Mainland, up 9.8 percent over October last year to reach 383,576. That surpassed the previous record high for domestic visitor arrivals in October — 380,000 in 1988.
The state is attracting more people like Arizona residents Angel Lagunas and Melinda Ramirez-Lagunas, who were in Hawai'i for the first time last week for their honeymoon.
"It's nice — nice weather, nice people, lots of ABC stores," said Angel Lagunas, adding that he'd like to return for an anniversary a few years from now.
The news was not as good for international visitor arrivals, but it's getting better. Arrivals from abroad totaled 176,558 in October, an increase of 9.3 percent from a year earlier, but still well below the record 225,000 of October 1996.
All tourists spent $849.9 million in the state in October, up 8.9 percent. That brought year-to-date expenditure figures to $8.5 billion, up 6.8 percent over the same period last year.
Western U.S. visitors spent the most at $300.8 million, followed by visitors from the Eastern U.S. with $241.2 million, Japan with $192.6 million and Canada at $21.2 million.
Visitors' average length of stay fell 5.1 percent compared with October 2003, but — thanks to the increased number of tourists — total visitor days grew by 4 percent.
"October was an exceptionally good month," said David Carey, chief executive officer of Outrigger Enterprises Inc. "It's one of those where it's not as robust on a pure numbers basis as August or July was, but compared to any other October it was a very good month."
Carey credited Hawai'i's marketing in the Eastern U.S., as well as the recent structural improvements made in Waikiki.
Every island saw more visitors except Moloka'i, whose October arrivals dropped by 12.3 percent. The Big Island saw the largest increase at 14.1 percent, followed by O'ahu at 9.9 percent, Maui at 6.7 percent, Kaua'i at 5.4 percent and Lana'i at 5 percent.
A total of 35,441 out-of-state cruise visitors toured the Islands last month aboard two Hawai'i- based cruise ships, the Norwegian Wind and the Pride of Aloha, and nine other ships. That's 56.6 percent higher than in October last year, when there were six out-of-state cruise ships and one Hawai'i-based ship, the Norwegian Star.
The number of cruise visitors between January and October declined 3.1 percent over the same period last year, mainly because of a scheduling shift that resulted in smaller passenger capacity in the first half of the year.
Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 535-2470.
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