Although visitor arrivals in August declined slightly and spending was flat against the same month last year, year-to-date results for Hawaii’s visitor industry continue to surpass last year’s records.
In August, Hawaii welcomed 730,707 visitors, which was 1.3 percent fewer than came during August 2013, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority. These visitors spent $1.3 billion, or 0.5 percent, less than those who came during the same time last year.
"Typically July and August are some of our best months in any year. This particular year it was very, very good for everybody," said Jerry Gibson, area vice president of Hilton Hawaii. "I can tell you that August was a pretty good month until the 25th when it paled off. That time of year is typically when kids go back to school, so normally it’s just OK."
To be sure, Hawaii experienced August decreases from its U.S. East, Japanese and Canadian markets. Arrivals from the U.S. East, Hawaii’s second-largest visitor market, fell 2.9 percent to 143,444 visitors, and spending dropped by 2.3 percent to $296 million. Expenditures by visitors from Japan, Hawaii’s largest international market, dropped 9.2 percent to $235.4 million in August as a result of an 8.2 percent decline in arrivals to 150,568 visitors.
"Right now the market looks pretty positive, but we’ve got a little bit of caution with regard to devaluation of the yen. They’ve experienced about a 35 percent loss of their buying power in the last two years," said John Votsis, director of sales and marketing at Trump International Hotel Waikiki Beach. "Similarly, the Australian dollar is down below 99, and Canada is below 90; they had been 110 and 105 respectively. When you see dips, you have to watch and be aware because currency changes do impact customer decisions."
Gibson said the Japanese market is still spotty, but the good news is that it began to come back in July from the downturn that it experienced earlier this year. HTA President and CEO Mike McCartney said that while visitor arrivals from Japan remain stable, the April increase in the consumption tax to 8 percent from 5 percent and a weakening Japanese yen led to a slight decline in visitor spending year-to-date through August.
"However, we anticipate seeing a boost next month due to the two-day Arashi concert that took place on September 18th and 19th. The popular Japanese boy band attracted more than 15,000 Japanese visitors during the softer shoulder period, which is also expected to generate approximately $20 million in visitor expenditures," McCartney said in a statement.
Kelly Sanders, area managing director of Waikiki for Starwood Hotels and Resorts, said Japanese market growth is particularly vital to Waikiki because it makes up 40 percent of the tourist base for the state’s top tourist district.
"We’re starting to see Japan up year-over-year for the first time since February," Sanders said.
"I think it’s because we all had a softer Asia year than expected and we put specials in the Japan market."
There also was some room for improvement on the neighbor islands in August, where arrivals to Maui fell 1.7 percent, arrivals to Hawaii island dropped 1.4 percent and Kauai arrivals declined by 1.1 percent compared with August 2013.
"We still have the ability to grow our neighbor islands," Gibson said.
However, results for the first eight months were still in keeping with HTA’s goal to increase spending this year by 2 percent to $14.69 billion and arrivals by 0.9 percent to 8.25 million. McCartney said year-to-date visitor arrivals grew 0.1 percent to 5.59 million, and spending rose 2 percent to nearly $10 billion, which translated into nearly $1.1 billion in tax revenue for the state.
"For the first eight months of the year, an average of 23,000 visitors arrived to the Hawaiian Islands each day, contributing to an average daily census of 208,000 visitors. This generated an estimated $41 million in expenditures per day, 2 percent more than the same period last year," McCartney said.
McCartney said China, whose year-to-date arrivals grew by 30.1 percent, and Korea, which contributed a 20.2 percent rise in year-to-date arrivals, are two particularly promising markets.
"As competition becomes more aggressive, the HTA will continue to work with all of its global marketing contractors and industry partners on maintaining the momentum and success of Hawaii’s tourism economy, focusing on implementing strategies that target long-term sustainability for the industry," he said.
