"They say it's a $30 million shot in the arm," said William Paty, chairman of the Military Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii.
"This is a military Golden Week," he said, comparing the influx to the annual flow of travelers from Japan that boosts tourism for a holiday week in late April and early May.
"It's one of the most significant shots in the arm the town has had in a long time, certainly since 1994 when the last RIMPAC was here," Paty said.
There are no hard economic figures but the last RIMPAC brought 20,000 military personnel here and they spent an estimated $15 million. This time the personnel numbers are 50 percent higher, so best-guess spending estimates run from $20 million to $30 million or more.
Aloha Tower Marketplace merchants have already been the recipients of some of that cash when the destroyer USS Leftwich, with a crew of more than 370, docked next to the marketplace over the weekend.
Helene "Sam" Shenkus, marketing director for the marketplace, said there has been a distinct pick up in business since the RIMPAC forces started returning to the islands Saturday.
And the Leftwich is just one of 44 ships from the military forces of the United States, Japan, Australia, Canada, Chile and South Korea that are stopping in Hawaii this week as the month-long naval exercises end. There are also 250 aircraft and a total of about 30,000 military personnel, plus friends and relatives visiting them while they are in the islands.
"RIMPAC has a big impact. We miss it when it isn't here," said Dale Evans, executive vice president of Charley's Taxi & Tours.
She toured some of her company's cab stands in Honolulu Sunday and noted an increase in business that she attributed directly to RIMPAC.
"Definitely we're very much busier," she said.
Lt. Cmdr. Phillip McGuinn, public affairs officer for the RIMPAC combined information bureau, said the military forces hope to have more definite data later this week, after they add up support and supply contract spending that went to local vendors.
"There are lots of vendors servicing ships," he said, and that brings in money aside from the retail spending by the military personnel, support forces and visiting dependents.
It is showing in the hotels too. Sandy Yara, a spokeswoman for Outrigger Hotels & Resorts, said her company's nearly 7,500 hotel rooms in Waikiki are nearly full and RIMPAC visitors are playing a big part in that.