For Immediate Release: august 29, 2006
DBEDT Release News 06-24

Note: July 2006 Visitor Research Data can be viewed here.

Record Domestic Visitor Days and Arrivals

HONOLULU--Hawaii visitor expenditures increased .3 percent to $1.2 billion, due to a 4.4 percent rise in average daily spending in July 2006, a record month, according to preliminary data released by the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT) today. Total visitor spending for the year has increased 4.6 percent to $7 billion.

Domestic arrivals reached 564,294 visitors resulting in a fourth straight month of positive growth (.9%). However, international arrivals and international visitor days were down 10.6 percent and 20.9 percent, respectively. Total arrivals to Hawaii found it hard to beat last July's record and experienced the first month of decline (-1.9%) after three months of positive growth. Total visitor days for July 2006 were also down 4 percent.

Total visitor days for the first seven months of 2006 rose to 40.2 million days, a slight increase from last year (.6%). Domestic arrivals increased 2.5 percent and international arrivals decreased 5.2 percent, which kept growth in total arrivals flat at .3 percent. Canada showed a 9.4 percent increase in arrivals, in contrast to Japanese arrivals, which decreased 9.1 percent compared to the same period last year.

Among the islands visited, Kauai saw the greatest gain with a 13.3 percent increase in visitors over July 2005. In addition, visitors who planned to only visit Kauai on this trip were up 14.3 percent. Hilo continues to benefit from direct flights. The number of visitors to Hilo was up 16.3 percent for the month and up 24.3 percent for the year.

"We are very pleased with July's extraordinary performance from the domestic market," said State Tourism Liaison Marsha Wienert. "Norwegian Cruise Lines new home ported Pride of Hawaii contributed to the increased visitor arrivals as cruise visitors, who arrived by air, increased 54 percent compared to last year," said Wienert.

Of the total number of visitors in July 2006, 36,085 visitors either flew to the state to board Hawaii home-ported cruise ships or arrived on foreign cruise ships visiting the islands, a 58.8 percent increase from the same period last year. Cruise visitor days grew 65.3 percent compared to July 2005.

• Total visitor expenditures: Visitors spent a total of $7 billion in the first seven months of 2006, up 4.6 percent compared to the same period last year, with large increases from the U.S. West and Canadian visitor markets. Total visitor spending by Japanese visitors decreased 3.7 percent.

  Year-to-date visitor spending on Oahu totaled $3.2 billion (-.6%), followed by Maui at $2.1 billion (+15.9%), the Big Island at $921.2 million (-3.9%) and Kauai at $724.1 million (+10.2%).

• Total air visitors: Contributing to the growth in total visitor expenditures was a .6 percent increase in total visitor days supported by higher arrivals from the domestic market. The average length of stay by all visitors was 9.2 days.

  Visitor arrivals rose on Kauai (+8.7%), Maui (+5.6%) and the Big Island (+5.7%), compared to the same period last year.

  A greater number of visitors came for meetings (+6.2%) and incentives (+6.7%) and other business (+2%).

  Repeat visitors accounted for 63.2 percent of the total visitors to Hawaii, versus 62.7 percent for year-to-date 2005.

• Domestic air visitors: Domestic visitor days rose 2.1 percent as arrivals increased by 2.5 percent to 3,221,766 visitors. The average length of stay was 9.9 days.

  The number of U.S. visitors, which accounted for 92.4 percent of total domestic arrivals to date, was 2.4 percent higher compared to the same period last year with increases from Mountain, West South Central, South Atlantic, West North Central, and Pacific Regions. Total domestic arrivals include continental U.S. residents and international visitors who came to Hawaii on domestic flights.

• International air visitors: International visitor days declined (-5%), resulting from a 5.2 percent decrease in arrivals to 1,141,482 visitors. The average length of stay remained constant at 7.2 days.

• Air visitors from the top four major market areas (MMAs):

  U.S. West: Total spending by U.S. West visitors reached $2.63 billion, 9.7 percent higher than year-to-date 2005. This group of visitors spent an average of $153.2 per person per day, a 6.7 percent increase from the same period last year.

  U.S. West arrivals rose 3.7 percent to 1,812,390 visitors for the first seven months of 2006. Visitor days increased by 2.8 percent - tempered by a slight decline in length of stay (-.9%).

  U.S. East: Total spending by U.S. East visitors increased 1.2 percent compared to the first seven months of 2005, to $2.21 billion, the second highest among the four major visitor markets. The average daily spending was $176.5 per person per day, the second highest among the top four visitor markets.

  U.S. East visitor days decreased slightly (-.3%) compared to the first seven months of 2005, despite a small increase (.2%) in arrivals to 1,213,480 visitors. The average length of stay declined slightly to 10.31 days from 10.37 days one year ago. A higher number of U.S. East visitors came for conventions.

Japan: Japanese visitors spent a total of $1.19 billion in the first seven months of 2006, 3.7 percent lower compared to the same period last year. Japanese visitors continued to spend the most on a daily basis at $272.2 per person, an increase of 8.2 percent.

Japanese visitor days declined 10.9 percent, year-to-date, due to a 9.1 percent decrease in visitor arrivals to 784,068 visitors. The average length of stay was 5.57 days, a decrease of 2.1 percent.

Canada: Even though year-to-date average daily spending by Canadian visitors ranked last among the top four major visitor markets at $132.9 per person per day, growth in expenditures topped 12.4 percent to reach $301.2 million spent in the first seven months. Canadian visitor days increased 13.2 percent, boosted by a 9.4 percent growth in arrivals to 166,912 visitors. The average length of stay was the longest among the top four visitor markets, at 13.6 days.

• Per person per trip expenditures by MMA:

  In the first seven months of 2006, U.S. East visitors spent the most per trip ($1,820.8 per person), followed by visitors from Canada ($1,804.4 per person), Japan ($1,515.5 per person) and the U.S. West ($1,452.9 per person).

Total cruise visitor days increased by 55.4 percent in the first seven months of 2006. Contributing to this increase was a 42.7 percent growth in cruise visitors to 215,733 visitors, including those who arrived by air to board cruise ships and those who came on the ships. These visitors were aboard 33 cruise ships including three U.S. flagged ships home ported in Hawaii, the Pride of Aloha, the Pride of Hawaii and the Pride of America.

Repeat visitors to Hawaii comprised 56.7 percent of out-of-state cruise visitors, a slight increase as compared to the same period last year. These cruise visitors stayed an average of 9.7 days in Hawaii, of which 6 days were spent on their cruise.

Technical Notes: 2005 air visitor data presented in this news release are the final 2005 numbers. Detailed final statistics will be published in the 2005 Annual Visitor Research Report, which is expected to be released in September 2006.

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