Updated at 4:40 p.m., Thursday, June 28, 2007
Hawaii visitor arrivals and spending rise in May
Advertiser Staff
More visitors came to Hawai'i and spent more money last month that they did in the same month last year, boosting the number of arrivals to a record for the month of May.That's according to preliminary statistics released today by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
The state agency said that spending in May 2007 increased 3.1 percent from last May to $914.5 million, boosted by growth in total visitor arrivals and slightly higher daily visitor spending.
Visitors who came during the month spent an average of $179 per person per day, compared to $178 per person in May 2006. For the first five months of 2007, total visitor expenditures rose 1.6 percent from the same period last year, to $4.8 billion. Average daily spending grew 2.8 percent to $177 per person.
Total visitor days for May 2007 increased 2.7 percent as total arrivals rose 1.6 to 586,338 visitors, setting a new record for the month of May. The average length of stay was slightly longer at 8.71 days.
Among the top four visitor markets, visitors from the U.S. West (+3.5 percent), U.S. East (+6.8 percent) and Canada (+8.4 percent) rose in May 2007 but arrivals from Japan (-10.3 percent) declined compared to the same month last year.
