Posted on: Friday, October 8, 2004

96 percent of visitors rate Island vacation highly

Advertiser Staff

Hawai'i visitors continue to be very satisfied with their experience here, according to a state report released yesterday.

The 2003 Visitor Satisfaction and Activity Report showed that more than 96 percent of the Mainland, Japanese, Canadian and European visitors surveyed rated their most recent Hawai'i vacation as "excellent" or "above average."

"Employees from all sectors of our visitor industry, businesses and residents should be applauded for their continued dedication and support in maintaining the superior service that has upheld this exceptional satisfaction rating from our visitors," said Marsha Wienert, Gov. Linda Lingle's tourism liaison.

The survey, conducted by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, also includes details of how visitors plan their trip and other demographic information.

Of the Mainland visitors who were surveyed, 72.4 percent rated their Hawai'i vacation as "excellent," up from 69.3 percent of those surveyed in 2002. The percentage of "excellent" ratings from Japanese visitors was smaller but grew slightly, from 48.7 percent in 2002 to 52 percent last year.

The report also showed that shopping, sightseeing and recreation continued to be the top three Hawai'i activities of all visitor markets.

Nearly all who were surveyed did at least some shopping during their vacation here, with Mainland visitors flocking to department and hotel stores, while Japanese tourists preferred duty-free stores and designer boutiques.

The three most popular sightseeing activities were self-guided tours, tour bus excursions and boat tours/submarine/whale watching tours.

Beach activities such as swimming and sunbathing were the most popular recreation activities among visitors from all major markets, followed by snorkeling/scuba diving and running/jogging/fitness walking.