Updated at 12:42 p.m., Thursday, September 27, 2007
August brought good news for Hawaii tourism industry
Advertiser Staff
August brought some good news to the visitor industry with more tourists visiting, pushing total visitor spending up 4.2 percent to $1.2 billion, according to preliminary state statistics released today by the state's Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.That's an increase of $46.3 million compared to the same month last year. State officials said August showed good news in every category: increased visitor days, visitor arrivals and higher daily visitor spending.
Total visitor expenditures increased for the U.S. West (+4.1% to $504.9 million), Japan (+10.4% to $205.7 million) and Canada (+7.1% to $25.7 million) markets. Visitor expenditures declined slightly for the U.S. East market (-.8% to $277.5 million because of lower daily spending.
Other numbers released show:
In the top four visitor markets, U.S. West (up to $168 per person from $160 per person), Japan (up to $228 per person from $221 per person) and Canada (up to $151 per person from $148 per person) visitors spent more on a daily basis compared to August 2006. However, U.S. East visitors spent less (down to $179 per person from $185 per person).
Visitor research data for August 2007 can be viewed at: www.hawaii.gov/dbedt.
