Hawaii’s visitor arrivals, tourist spending increase in March with Maui leading the way

Count of visitors to Hawaii rises 9.3 pct in March

HONOLULU — More people are vacationing in Hawaii and spending more, tourism officials said Tuesday, signaling a possible recovery for the hard-hit industry.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority said nearly 608,000 people visited the islands in March, a 9.3 percent increase over the same month last year.

All top four feeder markets showed gains, including a 17.3 percent jump in visitors from Canada, followed by the West Coast (9.2 percent), East Coast (7.9 percent) and Japan (6.5 percent).

“It is encouraging to see tourism in our state stabilizing,” said Marsha Wienert, Hawaii’s tourism liaison.

Total expenditures by visitors who came by air was up 12.7 percent to $874.2 million. That was the largest increase since April 2006, when the measure grew 15.6 percent.

Wienert said the increased visitor arrivals and the slightly higher spending resulted in an additional $99 million in visitor spending, which “benefited almost every sector of our economy.”

Tourism is the No. 1 industry in Hawaii and the economic lifeblood of the islands. Last year’s sharp drop-off in visitors stemming from the economic crisis has taken a toll on everything from jobs to tax revenues.

The island of Maui saw the biggest growth. Visitor spending rose 25 percent last month because of the addition of several new flights to the Valley Island from Canada and four cities in California. Arrivals on Maui increased 14.2 percent, followed by Oahu (9.5 percent), Kauai (8.2 percent) and the Big Island (0.2 percent).

For the first three months of the year, total spending statewide grew by 5 percent, or $130 million, over the same period last year to $2.7 billion.

The number of tourists from Asian markets outside Japan rose sharply in the quarter, with the number of Koreans nearly doubling and Chinese surging 23 percent.

“As Gov. (Linda) Lingle has stated for some time, these new developing markets are key to Hawaii’s tourism future,” Wienert said.

Mike McCartney, president and CEO of the tourism authority, said as expected, pent up demand, a rebounding economy, the visa waiver program and aggressive marketing efforts have contributed to the tremendous growth in the Korean market.

Asians also continue to outspend other travelers by a wide margin, but they stay in Hawaii a few days less on average.

Tourists from Japan spent $244 per person, per day in March, with Koreans at $238. That’s about $100 more per day than travelers from the West Coast ($139) or Canadians ($132).

McCartney said even with all the positive indicators, “we are mindful that we are coming off an especially depressed 2009, and it is important that we sustain momentum and these positive trends.”

“We cannot let up and must continue to work even harder to drive demand to fill the additional seats we have attracted into the market, and we need to pay attention to factors such as currency exchange rates and oil prices, which directly affect people’s ability and decision to travel to Hawaii,” he said.

Despite the increase in the number of leisure travelers, the number of convention attendees fell 13 percent in March.