For Immediate Release: September 7, 2006
DBEDT Release News 06-25

Note: the 2005 Annual Visitor Research Report can be viewed at: http://www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/info/visitor-stats/visitor-research

HONOLULU--The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) today released the 2005 Annual Visitor Research Report, which presents the agency's final audited statistics on the Hawaii visitor industry's record-breaking performance in 2005 and provides a comprehensive comparison with 2004 visitor data.

"2005 was a great year for Hawaii's visitor industry with all three indicators - visitor expenditures, visitor days, and arrivals - posting record highs," said State Tourism Liaison Marsha Wienert. "We achieved a milestone in total visitor days, of 68.2 million. This was boosted by record arrivals of 7.5 million visitors which resulted in a 9.6 percent increase in visitor spending ($11.9 billion). This strong performance by the visitor industry is reflected in our vibrant state economy and record-low unemployment, showing once again how vital tourism is to our state."

Among the high points for 2005 were business travel and cruise activities. Meeting, convention, and incentive travel jumped 27.3 percent and cruise visitors were up 43.6 percent in 2005 compared to the previous year.

Arrivals by air from the U.S. West, Hawaii's largest market, rose 9.6 percent while visitor expenditures grew 10 percent to $4.3 billion. U.S. East visitor arrivals (+6.9%) and expenditures (+11.1% to $3.6 billion) showed strong increases compared to 2004. Arrivals by air from Japan also exceeded the previous year's level by 2.4 percent while visitor expenditures from this market rose 2.4 percent to $2.2 billion.

New statistics added to this year's report are cruise visitor spending by island, visitors by life-stage, statistics on wedding visitors, and daily visitor spending by purpose of trip and by accommodation.

Additional highlights from the report:

• Repeat/First Time Visitors - Visitor by Air: Repeat visitors grew 8.3 percent to comprise 63 percent of total arrivals by air in 2005. The majority of the repeat visitors were from the U.S. West, where 77.9 percent reported that they had been to the islands before. Repeat visitors accounted for 52.2 percent of U.S. East arrivals, 55.7 percent of Japanese arrivals and 55.8 percent of Canadian arrivals in 2005. The majority of the repeat visitors were true independent travelers.
• Visitors who came by Air for MCI: A total of 584,005 visitors came to attend meetings, conventions and incentives (MCI) in the State, up 27.3 percent from the previous year. MCI travelers accounted for 7.9 percent of total air visitors in 2005. More than half (52.5%) of the MCI visitors booked their hotels and airfare separately, while the remainder purchased either group or package tour accommodations. MCI visitors stayed an average of 7.9 days in Hawaii.
• U.S. West air visitors: California was the largest contributor (64.3%) to the 3,032,492 total visitors from the U.S. West. Arrivals from California rose 8.6 percent from 2004 to 1.92 million visitors. Washington (+10.7%) and Oregon (+5.1%), the second and third largest contributors to U.S. West arrivals, also rose to 321,074 and 152,462 visitors, respectively.
• U.S. East air visitors: All seven regions of the U.S. East market reported increased arrivals compared to the previous year. The largest of all the sub-markets was the East-North-Central Region with 436,299 visitors. Ranked second in arrivals was the South Atlantic Region with 431,427 visitors.
• Japanese air visitors: The largest expense by Japanese visitors was shopping, which averaged $99 per person per day. Japanese visitors spent over four times as much per day shopping than those from the U.S. mainland, Canada and Europe. Japanese visitor spending on lodging, at $69 per person, was 14.1 percent higher than in 2004. These visitors spent $42.5 per person on food and beverages (-1%).
• Canadian air visitors: Lodging expenditures by these visitors averaged $61 per person per day, up 9.8 percent compared to 2004. Entertainment and recreation rose 7.7 percent to $11.2 per person, while shopping expenses averaged $16 per person, up 7.6 percent from the previous year.
• Cruise visitors: A total of 316,546 cruise visitors came by air to board cruise ships or came with cruise ships touring in the islands in 2005, up 31.5 percent compared to the previous year. Visitors from the U.S. East comprised the largest percentage of cruise visitors (54%), followed by visitors from U.S. West (28.4%), Canada (8.8%), Europe (2.8%), and others (6%).

In addition to the data presented here, the report also includes detailed air visitor statistics: by major market areas (MMAs: U.S., Japan, Canada, Europe, Oceania, Other Asia and Latin America), by purpose of trip, by accommodation and by first-time/repeat visitor status; detailed visitor expenditures by MMA, by island and by category, and air seat capacity data to Hawaii.

Also presented are statistics on visitor age and gender distributions by MMA, visitor room inventory, hotel occupancy and room rates and a profile of Hawaii's cruise passengers and their spending in 2005.

The 2005 Annual Visitor Research Report is available in Adobe Acrobat format on the DBEDT Web Site: http://www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/info/visitor-stats/visitor-research

A limited number of the printed report will be available in mid-September 2006 for pick up free of charge, at:

DBEDT - Research & Economic Analysis Division
One Capitol District Building
250 South Hotel Street, 4th Floor, Diamond Head Wing
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
Phone: (808) 586-2466

A shipping and handling charge per report will be applied to all mailing requests at the following rates: $3.50 (U.S. Domestic); $4.00 (Canada); $5.50 (Mexico) and $10.00 (Other International). Only checks will be accepted.

For further information on the reports, contact the DBEDT's Research and Economic Analysis Division at 586-2466.

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