Tourism up
slightly for April

But most of the increase
came from business travelers,
not vacationers

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Shorter stays by travelers from the Asia-Pacific region in April hurt an otherwise successful month for Hawaii tourism.

There was an overall 2.1 percent increase in visitor arrivals, to 539,910 from the previous April's 528,870, according to new figures from the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau. But the HVCB cautioned that the increase came mostly in business travel for meetings, conventions and incentive-reward activities.

Leisure travel, which produces most island visitors, was down.

Business activities brought 50,590 people to the islands in April, an increase of more than 12,000 travelers or 32.4 percent from the April 1996 business travel total of 38,210. Leisure travel brought in 445,360, a decline of 3,230 or 0.7 percent from 448,590 in the previous April.

Roberta Rinker-Ludloff, HVCB vice president for marketing, said the HVCB was pleased with the slight overall increase in arrivals. "But the leisure travel market, which drives the state's visitor industry, has been under-performing," she said.

Of particular concern is the continuing trend of shorter stays by the Asia-Pacific visitors, she said. Eastbound arrivals of 205,440 set a new April record and were up 2.6 percent from the previous April's total of 200,200, but they stayed an average of 5.5 days, down from 5.77 days in the previous April.

The result was a 2.2 percent decline in the average daily census of Asia-Pacific visitors. A decline in that figure indicates less spending and a dip in tourism's contribution to the economy.

The westbound daily census was up 2.8 percent, but the drop on the Asia-Pacific side left the daily census of tourists from all sources up only 1.5 percent from the year-earlier month.

Westbound arrivals in April were 334,370, up 1.8 percent from 328,670 in the year-earlier month.

For the year through April, Hawaii's overall visitor count was down 0.6 percent from the same period in 1996, the HVCB said.

Despite the overall lackluster tourism figures, the neighbor islands had a good April. Maui, the most popular neighbor island, showed a 3.6 percent increase for a total of 188,260 arrivals compared with 181,740 in April 1996.

The Big Island had a 17.8 percent increase to 102,030, from 86,590. Kauai had a 10.7 percent increase for a total of 91,070, from 82,240 in the previous April.

Lanai had a strong month with 11,050 arrivals, up 41.5 percent from 7,810 in April of last year, and Molokai also did well with a 45.2 percent increase, at 7,610 arrivals in April, from 5,240 a year earlier.

Country-by-country figures

The HVCB today also issued its annual country-by-country study of tourist arrivals. Japan, Hawaii's biggest foreign market, produced a record 2.09 million visitors in 1996, a 4.5 percent increase from 1995. An added 2,400 airline seats each week from Canada boosted that country's arrivals by 11.5 percent to 329,320 for the year.

Korea, now Hawaii's third largest foreign market, produced a record 121,920 visitors, a 16.6 percent increase. Taiwan produced a near-record 77,320, up 23.2 percent. Even mainland China provided 27,070 visitors, a jump of 27.7 percent from 1995.

British arrivals rose 4.2 percent to 76,290. However, German arrivals dipped 4.3 percent to 85,820. Australia, down 7.9 percent at 85,030, and New Zealand, down 11.4 percent at 32,900, were hurt by reduced direct airline service, the HVCB said.