Posted at 11:37 a.m., Thursday, October 25, 2007
Visitor arrivals dip in September, but spending rises
Advertiser Staff
The number of visitors to Hawai'i dipped slightly last month — 1.2 percent — but spending still went up a bit, according to state visitor arrival statistics released today.That's the word from the state Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism, which tracked visitor spending at $927.1 million, an increase of 0.5 percent or $4.8 million ahead of last September.
For the month of September, total arrivals declined 1.2 percent to 552,742 visitors. This decrease combined with a shorter average length of stay (down from 8.77 days to 8.63 days in September 2007) resulted in a 2.8 percent decrease in total visitor days.
Arrivals were lower from the U.S. West (down 5.8 percent) and Japan (down 2.7 percent) compared to the same month last year.
Visitors increased from the U.S. East (up 2.6%) and Canada (up 9.5 percent).
Through September 2007, total visitor days decreased 1.9 percent compared to year-to-date 2006, while total arrivals dipped 1 percent.
For more details of September visitor research data on the Web, go to: www.hawaii.gov/dbedt
