"Everything seemed to be going our way in February," said Paul Casey, HVB president and chief executive officer. "The Japan market seemed to be the driving force behind our growth."Last month's visitor count was also a whopping 16.2 percent increase from February 1995, according to the Hawaii Visitors Bureau.
"Everything seemed to be going our way in February," said Paul Casey, HVB president and chief executive officer. "The Japan market seemed to be the driving force behind our growth."
Casey said there was also a big tourism growth from Taiwan and Korea, resulting from a pent-up demand created recently when U.S. government offices were shut down and unable to issue visas.
The HVB said February was the second month in a row to show an increase in the daily visitor census.
On an average day in February, there were 175,590 tourists in the islands, 7.4 percent more than the February 1995 average daily census of 163,510,
Tourist industry officials say the daily totals are important because they are a direct indication of tourist spending.
A total of 577,560 visitors came to Hawaii in February, compared with 496,920 in February of last year.
Eastbound tourist traffic, led by the Japanese but also including travelers from Southeast Asia and other Pacific areas, totaled 226,180, up 34.5 percent from a year earlier. Westbound traffic was up too, for a total of 351,380 last month, an increase of 6.9 percent compared with February 1995.
The reason the daily census did not rise as much as the overall visitor volume was that visitors stayed a shorter time, an average of 8.82 days compared with 9.21 days a year earlier, the HVB said.
All islands except Molokai showed increases in tourist arrivals. Maui had a 3.2 percent increase for a total of 186,030. The Big Island had 97,910 visitors, up 2.3 percent. Kauai had 76,300, an increase of 8.7 percent. Lanai arrivals were up 3.1 percent at 9,290. Molokai traffic slipped 17 percent, with a total of 7,030 last month.