For Immediate Release: December 28, 2006
DBEDT Release News 06-36

Rating by Japanese Visitors Continues To Be Excellent

Note: The 2006 Visitor Satisfaction 1st Half-Year Monitoring Report can be viewed at: http://www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/info/visitor-stats/vsat

HONOLULU - Visitors in the first half of 2006 were highly satisfied with their overall experience in Hawaii. Almost two-thirds (63.6%) of all U.S. visitors found their most recent trip excellent. A rating of excellent was also given by a majority of Japanese (50.8%), Canadian (57.4%) and European (61.0%) visitors, according to statistics from the 2006 Visitor Satisfaction 1st Half-year Monitoring Report released today by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

"High visitor satisfaction ensures a strong visitor industry" said Tourism Liaison, Marsha Wienert. "The results confirm that the visitor industry provided excellent services and a variety of quality activities which allowed visitors to have a positive experience even with the unprecedented circumstances of rain and flooding in the first half of 2006."

"The high satisfaction ratings also show that visitors recognize Hawaii is a special place with a unique culture. The people of Hawaii should feel proud that our aloha spirit and island hospitality are noticed and appreciated by visitors," added Wienert.

A good indicator of a high quality experience is how well visitors' expectations are exceeded. Hawaii does quite well with the U.S. East and Europe markets. However, Hawaii continued to find it slightly more difficult to exceed the expectations of U.S. West and Canadian visitors, mainly due to the numerous repeat visitors in these markets.

This Monitoring Report presents selected preliminary statistics for the first six months of the 2006 Visitor Satisfaction and Activity survey. The survey measures the opinions of visitors, regarding their satisfaction with Hawaii as a visitor destination, from the top five major marketing areas: U.S. West, U.S. East, Japan, Canada and Europe. The report highlights survey respondents' evaluation of the vacation experience including: overall satisfaction with the most recent vacation to Hawaii, trip expectations, likelihood to recommend Hawaii, likelihood to revisit Hawaii, reasons for not revisiting Hawaii, satisfaction by island, and trip planning timeline.

This first-time report of partial year data is due to an initiative by the Tourism Research Branch to increase the frequency of reporting to quarterly and half-year intervals when possible. The annual 2006 Visitor Satisfaction and Activity report, which includes a more complete analysis for the full calendar year 2006, is scheduled for release in mid-2007.

Additional highlights from the report:

The number of U.S. West visitors that plan to return in the next five years has increased from 73.0 percent in the first half of 2005 to 75.0 percent in the first half of 2006.

U.S. visitors to Maui were more likely to say they had an excellent experience (71.4%) than visitors to Oahu or Hawaii Island. In the first half of 2006, U.S., Canadian, and European visitors were less satisfied with their experience on Kauai than visitors from one year before.

U.S. and Canadian satisfaction levels for outdoor aspects of Kauai were lower in 2006 than in 2005 while indoor aspects remained stable. A fact mainly attributed to the excessive rain in the first part of 2006.

Japan visitors' overall satisfaction (49.8%) with Maui declined in the first half of 2006, fueled by the visitors' lower satisfaction for Maui's activities, attractions and accommodations.

U.S. West visitors appeared to have shifted their trip planning window to start slightly earlier. Many U.S. West visitors made a decision to visit Hawaii approximately four to six months before leaving home while a year ago they would have made the decisions in the one-to-three month window.

Table 1: Visitor Satisfaction Ratings by MMA

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