Hawaii tourism
fell 3.9%
in October

Eastbound arrivals, despite a
16.8% drop, stayed longer

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

The Asian economic crisis continued to eat into Hawaii's tourist business last month, resulting in a 3.9 percent decline in visitors.

A 16.8 percent decline in eastbound arrivals from Asia and the Pacific more than wiped out a 4.5 percent increase in westbound traffic from the mainland, Canada and Europe.

But the news wasn't as bad as the arrivals numbers show by themselves, said the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau and the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, which together issued the monthly report today.

The eastbound visitors who did come stayed longer, giving them more opportunity to spend money, and the westbound average length of stay was just slightly under that of the previous October, according to the report. The result was an increase in the number of visitor days, although the rise was only 0.1 percent.

"The economic downturn in Asia continues to negatively impact our eastbound counts," said Tony Vericella, HVCB president and chief executive officer.

Vericella, however, said that a stronger yen and extended-stay options being offered by tour wholesalers in Japan led to longer stays among the Japanese who visited Hawaii in October.

The arrivals numbers from the mainland were particularly strong, up 6.4 percent from the year-earlier month.

"The monthly growth observed in Hawaii's U.S. arrivals appears to mirror the free-spending mood prevalent in the U.S. in October," said Seiji Naya, DBEDT director.

There were some bright spots among the neighbor islands, with Kauai and the Big Island showing substantial increase from the previous October. But Oahu continued to get hit by the loss of Japanese visitors. The majority of Japanese tourists concentrate their activities on Oahu, making them a big part of Oahu's business. When they stay home, Oahu suffers.

Today's report showed that the number of Oahu visitors was down 10.5 percent from the previous October, as an 18.9 percent plunge in eastbound business was exacerbated by a 1.9 percent decline in westbound visitors to Oahu.

Kauai arrivals were up 15.3 percent from the year-earlier month, due in part to United Airlines' new daily nonstop service from Los Angeles. The Big Island also had an increase in tourist numbers, 8.9 percent more than October 1997, but Maui arrivals were off 3.9 percent.

Total statewide numbers, however, show just how bad the Asian decline was for Hawaii. A total of 528,260 people came to the islands in October, 21,160 fewer than the October 1997 total of 549,420. Westbound arrivals were up by 15,070 at 349,260, compared with 334,190 in the year-earlier month. But eastbound arrivals were down by 36,230 to 179,000. That was the largest decline for any month this year, HVCB figures show.

Eastbound travelers, however, stayed nearly half a day longer on average than they did last year, 5.74 days last month compared with 5.32 days in October 1997. That resulted in 1.03 million visitor days in the eastbound segment. The average westbound length of stay decreased slightly to an average of 9.85 days, compared with 9.72 days in October 1997.