By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Hotel occupancy was down again in January, for the ninth month in a row, slipping to a statewide average of 73.5 percent from 75.3 percent in January 1997.

The overall slide included a three percentage point drop for Waikiki hotels, where the January average occupancy rate dropped below 80 percent for the first time in 15 years, according to PKF-Hawaii, the consulting firm that issued its monthly hotel report today. Waikiki, which has the state's biggest concentration of hotel rooms, averaged occupancy of 78.2 percent last month compared with 81.3 percent for January 1997.

"The effect of the 'Asian economic flu' is upon us now," said Ernie Watari, PKF-Hawaii chairman and chief executive officer. Watari was referring to the financial crisis in some Asian countries that is having an adverse impact on Hawaii's biggest foreign source of tourists, Japan.

"Hawaii needs to prepare itself for a very challenging year in tourism. The economic hurricane is upon us," Watari said.

PKF-Hawaii figures and those of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau show that Waikiki gets hit hard when Japanese travel slows down, because it is still the destination of choice for most Japanese tourists. Many of them stay only a few days and don't have time for overnight visits to neighbor islands.

Room rates in Waikiki as a whole were flat, $136.83 a night last month compared with $137.14 in the previous January.

Statewide room rates averaged $146.92 last month, up 2.4 percent from $143.51 in January 1997.

By island, occupancy rates fell on Oahu, Maui and Kauai, but climbed for the Big Island and Molokai. Average room rates dropped slightly on Oahu and Kauai, while rising for Hawaii, Maui and Molokai, PKF said.

The Big Island showed an occupancy increase of 7.6 percentage points and its room rates were up by 6.2 percent to $161.42 from $151.97 in January 1997. The highest average room rate in the state was on the Kohala Coast, $218.68, up 3.6 percent from $211.06, and that luxury resort district also had an 11-point increase in occupancy.

The January figures were based on a survey of 136 properties with a total of 38,930 rooms, 55 percent of the available rooms in Hawaii.