For Immediate Release: February 27, 2004
DBEDT Release News 04-06

Note: January 2004 Visitor Research Data can be viewed here.

Honolulu—In an effort to improve the accuracy and timeliness of its visitor research data, the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) today announced a new methodology for processing information. For the first time ever, monthly data on visitor expenditures will be released in the same month as DBEDT's basic series figures. The monthly expenditures will be available statewide as well as for Oahu and the Neighbor Islands. Information for Oahu visitors is from a new Oahu survey, which began in January 2004.

In addition, DBEDT is revising the "average length of stay" calculations for 2003 to reflect usage of the new in-flight survey form. The survey, developed to collect data from visitors arriving on domestic flights, now uses Teleform, an image scanning software with handwriting recognition ability. The new survey format allows visitors to report their exact length of stay, instead of the range of days recorded by the old fill-in bubble format. This has produced a more precise measurement.

"While DBEDT is in the process of revising the previous year's data, we will not present monthly comparisons of 2004 length of stay, visitor days, average daily census and visitor expenditures statistics with results from the previous year," said Marsha Wienert, tourism liaison. "As we move forward we are confident that these improvements will give us a more accurate and timely measurement of our visitor industry."

Available data indicated that visitor arrivals by air from the domestic market continued to increase in January 2004 compared to the same month last year. In addition, the number of visitors in Hawaii for meetings, conventions and incentives (MCI) grew 11.6 percent from the previous January. Contributing to the increase was the American Farm Bureau Federation's 85th annual convention, which brought about 7,500 visitors to the state.

"We are pleased to see steady growth in visitor arrivals from our primary U.S. market," Wienert said. "Arrivals increased across all U.S. regions. It is also encouraging to see the improvement from our MCI visitor segment, which has continued to grow since July 2003."

• Total air visitors: A total of 512,186 visitors came to the islands during the month, slightly down by 1.0 percent from January 2003. Total visitor days numbered 5.3 million, with an average length of stay of 10.39 days.
• Domestic air visitors: Domestic arrivals rose 2.8 percent to 342,415 visitors. The average length of stay was 11.66 days. Arrivals from the U.S. market, which accounted for 90.1 percent of all domestic visitors, rose 3.4 percent with growth from all U.S. regions. Domestic arrivals increased on Oahu and Kauai compared to the same month last year.
• International air visitors: Arrivals from the international market totaled 169,771 visitors for the month, which was 7.8 percent lower than in January 2003. Those who came this January stayed an average of 7.83 days.
• Total repeat/first-time visitors: Repeat visitors accounted for 64.3 percent of the total visitors to Hawaii compared to 65.9 percent last January.

• Arrivals by Island: Fewer visitors went to multiple islands during January. Single-island visitation increased on Oahu, Kauai, Molokai and the Big Island compared to January 2003.
  • Purpose of trip: More visitors came for meetings, conventions and incentives (+11.6%) and to visit friends or relatives (+3.1%) than in January of last year.
  • Air visitors from the top four major market areas (MMAs):

    U.S. West: Arrivals from the U.S. West rose 0.8 percent to 170,110 visitors. More of these visitors came to honeymoon, for vacation and for meetings, conventions and incentives compared to January 2003.

    U.S. East: A total of 147,954 U.S. East visitors came to the islands in January 2004, up 6.7 percent from the same month last year. A greater number of these visitors came to honeymoon, to attend conventions or to visit friends and relatives compared to January a year ago.

    Japan: Arrivals from Japan totaled 110,662 visitors during the month, a 9.4 percent decline compared to January 2003. Japanese visitors accounted for 65.2 percent of all international visitors and 21.6 percent of total visitors to the state. First-time visitors comprised 43.2 percent of this January's total, up from 38.2 percent for the same month last year.

    Canada: A total of 31,629 Canadians visited the islands during the month, down 5.6 percent compared to January last year.

• Cruise visitors: There were a total of eight cruise ship arrivals in January 2004 carrying 15,383 out-of-state visitors, including those who arrived by air to board these ships and those who came with the ships. The number of visitors was 18.8 percent lower compared to last January with 7 cruise ship arrivals.

  "This decrease in cruise visitors was mainly due to more smaller ships with less passenger capacity that toured Hawaii in January 2004," Wienert said. "In addition, there was only one Hawaii-home ported ship compared to two Hawaii-based cruise ships last January. It is typical for cruise lines to move their fleets around from month to month. This will cause cruise visitor numbers to fluctuate in some months, but it is important to note this is only an anomaly and does not reflect the industry trend."

  Nearly 41 percent of the out-of-state cruise visitors were first-time visitors to the islands, compared to 37.9 percent last year. These cruise visitors stayed an average of 7.39 days in Hawaii, of which 4.20 days were spent on their cruise and another 3.19 days were spent before and after their cruise.

• Total visitor expenditures: Total expenditures by visitors who came by air in January 2004 was $851.0 million. Total spending by U.S. East visitors was the highest at $291.8 million, followed by visitors from the U.S. West at $253.9 million, Japan at $160.5 million and Canada at $60.8 million.

  By island, visitor spending on Oahu totaled $399.4 million. Spending by visitors on Maui was second at $234.4 million, followed by visitor spending on the Big Island ($117.1 million), Kauai ($93.7 million), Lanai ($4.1 million) and Molokai ($2.4 million).

• Per person per day expenditures: Japanese visitors continued to spend the most on a daily basis at $254 per person, followed by those from the U.S. East ($160 per person), from all other major market areas ($156 per person), from the U.S. West ($136 per person) and from Canada ($132 per person).
• Per person per trip expenditures: U.S. East visitors spent the most per trip at $1,972 per person, followed by those from Canada at $1,923 per person, from all other major market areas at $1,619 per person, and from the U.S. West at $1,493 per person. Although Japanese visitors spent the most on a daily basis, their average per trip spending of $1,451 was the lowest among all visitor groups due to their shorter average length of stay.

For more information, contact:
Marsha Wienert, Tourism Liaison
Phone: (808) 586-2362
Email: marsha.wienert@hawaii.gov

Dave Young
Communications
Phone: (808) 587-1212
Email: dyoung@dbedt.hawaii.gov