For Immediate Release: August 30, 2007
DBEDT Release News 07-21

Note: the 2006 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 2006 Annual Visitor Research Report, which presents the agency's final audited statistics on the Hawai‘i visitor industry's performance in 2006 and provides a comprehensive comparison with 2005 visitor data.

"After two exceptional years of growth in 2004 and 2005, Hawai‘i's visitor industry built on that success by posting new record highs in visitor expenditures, visitor days, and arrivals last year," said State Tourism Liaison Marsha Wienert. "We achieved a milestone in total visitor days of 69.2 million. This was boosted by landmark arrivals of 7.56 million visitors which resulted in a 4 percent increase in visitor spending ($12.4 billion)."

Among the high points for 2006 was the increase in Neighbor Island visitation which was primarily driven by increased cruise activities. Total visitors to Maui were up 7.6 percent, Hawai‘i Island was up 8.1 percent, and Kaua'i increased 12.5 percent. Total cruise visitors were up 31.4 percent in 2006 compared to the previous year.

Arrivals by air from the U.S. West, Hawai‘i's largest market, rose 5.3 percent while visitor expenditures grew 9.8 percent to $4.7 billion. U.S. East visitor arrivals (+.2%) and expenditures (+1.3% to $3.6 billion) showed more modest increases compared to 2005. Arrivals by air from Japan declined by 10.2 percent and visitor expenditures from this market fell 8 percent to $2.0 billion.

Additional highlights from the report:

The report also includes visitor characteristics and expenditures for visitors arriving by air: by major market areas (U.S., Japan, Canada, Europe, Oceania, Other Asia and Latin America), by select countries, by purpose of trip, by accommodation, by first-time/repeat visitor status, and by island. Detailed spending categories by major market areas and by island are also reported.

Also presented is a profile of Hawai‘i's cruise visitors and their spending characteristics, visitor room inventory, hotel occupancy and room rates, and air seat capacity to Hawai‘i data.

The 2006 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 reports will be available in mid-September 2007 for pick up free of charge, at:

DBEDT - Research & Economic Analysis Division
One Capitol District Building
250 South Hotel Street, Suite 435
Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96813
Phone: (808) 586-2466

A shipping and handling charge per report will be applied to all mailing requests. Only checks will be accepted.

For further information on the reports, contact the DBEDT's Research and Economic Analysis Division at (808) 586-2466 or trb@dbedt.hawaii.gov.

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