For Immediate Release: January 29, 2008
DBEDT Release News 08-03

Visitor Expenditures in December 2007 Increased $37 Million to $1.2 Billion

Note: December 2007 Visitor Research Data can be viewed here.

HONOLULU--Visitor expenditures for December 2007 rose $37 million or 3.2 percent above last December to $1.2 billion, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT). Expenditures for the year totaled $12.2 billion, up .9 percent or $103.2 million compared to 2006. The average daily visitor spending for December grew from $179 per person in 2006 to $183 per person in 2007. Daily spending increased 2.5 percent to $183 per person for calendar year 2007.

For the month of December 2007, visitors who came to Hawai‘i stayed longer (10.07 days compared to 9.68 days in December 2006) contributing to a 1.2 percent growth in visitor days; although total visitor arrivals decreased 2.7 percent to 649,159 visitors. Among the top four visitor markets, arrivals from Canada jumped 19.6 percent, while U.S. West (-5.2%) U.S. East (-7%) and Japanese (-3.8%) arrivals were lower compared to December 2006. Total arrivals from all other geographic areas increased 7.6 percent.

For the full year 2007, total visitor days decreased 1.6 percent, while total arrivals dipped 1.2 percent to 7,368,048 visitors. The average length of stay was virtually unchanged at 9.15 days. Visitors from Canada grew 5.3 percent and arrivals from the U.S. West rose slightly (+.1%), but there were fewer Japanese (-3.5%) and U.S. East (-3.3%) visitors compared to 2006.

"Hawai‘i's visitor industry remained stable in 2007 especially coming off of two robust years of growth," said State Tourism Liaison, Marsha Wienert. "We continue to be encouraged by the increase in visitor spending, as well as ongoing growth in the number of visitors from markets such as Canada, Hawaii's fourth largest market, and the strong performance of Hawai‘i's cruise industry."

Other Highlights:

• The 19.6 percent growth in December arrivals from Canada was the fifth consecutive month of increases and brought the year 2007 up 5.3 percent. This is the fifth straight year of annual growth for Canadian visitor arrivals.
• Visitor arrivals from Washington, which have increased every month since May 2006, rose 14.9 percent in December 2007. For the year, arrivals from the Pacific Region rose slightly (+.1%) over 2006, due to increases from Washington (+13.7%), Oregon (+7.6%) and Alaska (+14.3%) which shored up a 3.1 percent decline in arrivals from California.
• For the month of December 2007, Japanese visitors stayed 3.3 percent longer (5.80 days compared to 5.61 days in December 2006) resulting in only a slight decline in visitor days (-.6%) despite a 3.8 percent decrease in arrivals.

• Visitor spending on O‘ahu for all of 2007 rose 1.9 percent to $5.7 billion, when compared to 2006. Spending on Maui was the second highest at $3.4 billion, but decreased 4.3 percent from a year ago. Both Hawai‘i Island at $1.7 billion (+3.9%) and kaua‘i at $1.3 billion (+4.5%) reported growth over last year.

• For December 2007, total arrivals for kaua‘i increased and Hawai‘i Island was stable compared to the same month last year.

• For the year, kaua‘i was the only island with increased visitor traffic from all four markets. O‘ahu saw growth in arrivals from the U.S. West and Canada but fewer from the U.S. East and Japan. Hawai‘i Island reported increased arrivals from U.S. East and Canada while Maui experienced growth in Canadian visitors compared to 2006.

December 2007 Cruise Ship Visitors

• Total cruise visitor days for December 2007 increased 2.8 percent. The number of cruise visitors who arrived by ship or arrived by air and boarded a cruise ship dipped slightly by .6 percent to 42,509 visitors. The average length of stay by all cruise visitors during the month was 10.38 days, up from 10.04 days in December 2006.
• Total cruise visitor days rose 24.2 percent for 2007. Contributing to this increase was a 20.6 percent growth in cruise visitors to 501,698 visitors. These passengers include those who flew to the state to board cruise ships or came by cruise ships visiting Hawai‘i. In 2007 there were 77 cruise ship arrivals, compared to 64 in the same period last year. Cruise ship arrival is the number of times cruise ships enter the State of Hawai‘i. A cruise ship may be counted multiple times if it leaves Hawai‘i then returns with new passengers within the same month.

Technical Notes: 2006 visitor data presented in this news release are the final data for the year. Detailed final statistics have been published in the 2006 Annual Visitor Research Report, available at the Visitor Statistics website: http://www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/info/visitor-stats

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