Posted on: Friday, March 28, 2008
February saw more tourist arrivals
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
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FEBRUARY VISITOR ARRIVALS
Feb. 2007 Feb. 2008 Percent Change U.S. West 226,316 230,665 1.9 U.S. East 158,496 165,286 4.3 Japan 101,436 98,174 -3.2 Canada 34,222 44,992 31.5 TOTAL* 570,225 603,689 5.9 * Includes ship arrivals and markets not listed here. Other markets list just air arrivals. Source: state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism The Honolulu Advertiser
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The number of visitors to Hawai'i rose moderately in February from the same month a year ago, thanks in part to an additional calendar day, courtesy of leap year. But even excluding the bonus day, arrivals still posted a respectable gain.
Arrivals rose 5.9 percent to 603,689 visitors, according to a report released yesterday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Excluding the extra leap-year day, arrivals rose 2.8 percent.
A boom in visitors from Canada pushed up the number of total "visitor days" from that country, enabling it to nose out Japan in that category for the first time since the 1980s.
Visitor days is the number of visitors from a given country multiplied by the average length of stay. Although Japanese visitors outnumbered their Canadian counterparts by more than 2 to 1, the average length of stay for Canadians was nearly three times longer.
State tourism liaison Marsha Wienert said the strength of the Canadian dollar has helped encourage travel from there. And she said the strong yen has helped make an American vacation a better bargain for Japanese visitors as well, helping to blunt a recent downturn from that country and travelers stung by high fuel surcharges, long flights and an urge to travel someplace they've never seen before.
Wienert credited the overall increase in arrivals to marketing teamwork across the state's No. 1 private industry for a good start to the calendar year despite last year's dip and overall economic worries nationwide. "For all intents and purposes, we had a very good month and a good year to date," she said.
Of the total visitor arrivals in February, 592,889 arrived by air, 5.6 percent more than in the same month last year. Another 10,800 visitors arrived by ship, a 22.5 percent increase from a year ago.
Spending by visitors who arrived by air rose to $1 billion, a 5.2 percent increase from a year earlier. Average daily spending fell slightly to $179.50 per person from $180.90 per person last February.
Among the top four visitor markets, arrivals from Canada climbed 31.5 percent. U.S. East visitor arrivals for the month rose 4.3 percent. Arrivals of Japanese visitors were down 3.2 percent compared to February 2007.
Some other statistics of note:
Visitors who came by cruise ship increased 22.5 percent to 10,800 visitors, resulting in a 38.3 percent growth in total visitor days by ship compared to the same month last year. Year-to-date, 23,532 visitors came by cruise ships, up 14.4 percent from the first two months in 2007, while total visitor days by ship rose 25 percent.
For February 2008, a total of 25,635 visitors came by ship or arrived by air and boarded a cruise ship, down 33.7 from last February. The average length of stay by all cruise visitors during the month was 10.54 days, up from 9.61 days in February 2007.
The decrease in total cruise visitors for February 2008 was largely due to the departure of the Pride of Hawai'i, which ended its interisland cruises in January 2008. In addition, there was one less ship tour from the Pride of Aloha, which changed itinerary from seven-day cruises to 10-day cruises.
For the first two months of 2008, 63,334 visitors came by ship or by air to board cruise ships, 24.3 percent lower compared to the same period last year. Visitor days for all cruise visitors decreased 17.5 percent.
The 31.5 percent growth in arrivals from Canada was the seventh consecutive month of increases since August 2007. Year-to-date, Canadian arrivals rose 29.6 percent to 89,116 visitors.
The number of Japanese visitors who honeymooned in the Islands rose 13.4 percent in February 2008 and 8.6 percent year-to-date. Japanese visitors who came to get married also increased 4.5 percent from last February and 2.8 percent compared to the first two months of 2007.
Spending by visitors on O'ahu for February 2008 rose 6 percent to $447.4 million, when compared to last February. Visitor spending on Maui was the second-highest at $308.8 million, up 8 percent. Spending on the Big Island decreased 3.5 percent to $141 million, and visitor expenditures on Kaua'i increased 6.3 percent to $102.9 million. For the first two months of 2008, visitor spending on all islands increased compared to the same period last year.
February visitors rose 4.5 percent for O'ahu, 5.1 percent for Maui, 8.3 percent for Lana'i and 22.7 percent for Moloka'i. Arrivals fell 2.4 percent for the Big Island and 1.5 percent for Kaua'i.
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
