For Immediate Release: March 24, 2004
DBEDT Release News 04-09

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

Total Visitor Days, Arrivals and Spending Continue to Increase

Honolulu--The state's domestic visitor market continued to strengthen in February 2004 with an 11.4 percent increase in visitor arrivals compared to the same month last year, according to data released by DBEDT today.

Contributing to the growth in domestic arrivals was the NFL Pro Bowl, which attracted about 22,000 visitors, up from the 18,000 visitors who came to attend the 2003 game. There were also more domestic visitors in the islands for meetings, conventions and incentives (MCI) compared to last February. Contributing to the growth were the CISCO Partner Summit Conference with about 3,000 attendees and the World Aquaculture Society Tri-Annual Meeting with about 2,300 attendees.

"We are very encouraged to see continuous strong performance from our domestic segment. Daily arrivals from the U.S. mainland in February were the best February results on record, with an average of 12,600 visitor arrivals each day," said State Tourism Liaison, Marsha Wienert. "California continues to be our largest single state contributor of visitors. One out of every five visitors in February was from California."

The strong growth in domestic visitor arrivals resulted in a 6 percent increase in total arrivals this February compared to February 2003. Total visitor days numbered 5.0 million, while the average length of stay by these visitors was 9.37 days.

• Total air visitors: A total of 1,043,502 visitors came to the islands, up 2.5 percent from year-to-date 2003. Total visitor days numbered 10.3 million, with an average length of stay of 9.87 days.
• Domestic air visitors: Domestic arrivals increased 7.1 percent to 708,503 visitors. The average length of stay was 10.82 days. Arrivals from the U.S. market, which accounted for 90.8 percent of all domestic visitors, rose 7.3 percent with growth from all U.S. regions. Domestic arrivals increased on Oahu and Kauai compared to the same period last year.
• International air visitors: Arrivals from the international market totaled 334,999 visitors, 6.1 percent lower compared to year-to-date 2003. Those who came during this period stayed an average of 7.85 days.

• Total repeat/first-time visitors: Repeat visitors accounted for 64.0 percent of the total visitors to Hawaii compared to 64.3 percent in the same period last year.
• Arrivals by Island: Fewer visitors went to multiple islands during the first two months of 2004. Single-island visitation increased on Oahu, Kauai, Molokai and the Big Island.
• Purpose of trip: More visitors came for meetings, conventions and incentives (+11.9%), to visit friends or relatives (+9.8%), for other business (+7.0%) and to attend sports events (+6.8%) compared to year-to-date 2003.
• Air visitors from the top four major market areas (MMAs):

  U.S. West: Arrivals from the U.S. West rose 6 percent to 360,271 visitors. A greater number of these visitors came to honeymoon, to visit friends or relatives, for vacation and for MCI purposes compared to the same period last year.

  U.S. East: A total of 299,440 U.S. East visitors came to the islands, up 8.2 percent from year-to-date 2003. Similar to their U.S. West counterpart, more U.S. East visitors came to honeymoon, to vacation, to visit friends or relatives and for MCI purposes.

Japan: Arrivals from Japan totaled 226,517 visitors so far this year, accounting for 67.6 percent of all international visitors and 21.7 percent of total visitors to the state. First-time visitors comprised 46.0 percent of the total, up from 45.4 percent for the same period last year. This came seven months after Governor Lingle's mission to Japan.

Canada: A total of 63,548 Canadians visited the islands, down 3.1 percent compared to year-to-date 2003.

• Cruise visitors: There were a total of fourteen cruise ship arrivals year-to-date, carrying 32,172 out-of-state visitors, including those who arrived by air to board these ships and those who came with the ships.

  41 percent of the out-of-state cruise visitors were first-time visitors to the islands, compared to 39.1 percent in the same period last year. These cruise visitors stayed an average of 7.30 days in Hawaii, of which 4.30 days were spent on their cruise and another 3.00 days were spent before and after their cruise.

• Total visitor expenditures: Total expenditures by visitors who came by air in February 2004 was $822.2 million. Total spending by U.S. West visitors was the highest at $274.8 million, followed by visitors from the U.S. East at $252.8 million, Japan at $172.1 million and Canada at $55.9 million.

  By island, visitor spending on Oahu totaled $399.3 million. Spending by visitors on Maui was second at $232.2 million, followed by visitor spending on the Big Island ($96.4 million), Kauai ($86.7 million), Lanai ($5.4 million) and Molokai ($2.2 million).

  Year-to-date, air visitors spent a total of $1.7 billion while in Hawaii. U.S. East visitors spent $544.6 million, followed by visitors from the U.S. West ($528.7 million), Japan ($332.6 million), Canada ($116.7 million) and visitors from All Other MMAs ($150.6 million).

  For the first two months of 2004, visitor spending on Oahu totaled $798.7 million. Visitor spending on Maui was $466.6 million, followed by the Big Island at $213.4 million, Kauai at $180.4 million, Lanai at $9.5 million and Molokai at $4.6 million.

• Per person per day expenditures: Japanese visitors continued to spend the most on a daily basis at $264 per person in February 2004, followed by those from the U.S. East ($159 per person), from the U.S. West ($151 per person), from All Other markets ($149 per person) and from Canada ($121 per person).

  The average daily spending by Japanese visitors was $258 per person during the first two months of 2004. Daily spending by U.S. East visitors year-to-date was the next highest ($159), followed by visitors from All Other markets ($153 per person), from the U.S. West ($143 per person) and from Canada ($121 per person).

• Per person per trip expenditures: Canadian visitors spent the most per trip at $1,752 per person in February 2004, followed by those from the U.S. East at $1,669 per person, from All Other markets at $1,591 per person, from Japan at $1,485 per person and from the U.S. West at $1,445 per person.

  Year-to-date Canadian visitors spent $1,837 per person per trip, followed by visitors from the U.S. East ($1,818 per person), from All Other markets ($1,606 per person), Japan ($1,469 per person) and the U.S. West ($1,467 per person).

Technical Note: In an effort to improve the accuracy and timeliness of its visitor research data, DBEDT has implemented a new methodology for processing information. Monthly data on visitor expenditures are now released in the same month as DBEDT's basic series figures and are available statewide and by island. 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. 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.

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