Tourists spent 7.3% Tourist spending in Hawaii last year was down 7.3 percent from 2000, but that was not as bad as it could have been, thanks to strong business from the western states, a new state report says.
less in 2001
The number of tourists also fell,
by 9.3%, from the year 2000Star-Bulletin staff
Tourist arrivals bounced back after Sept. 11, from a 25.6 percent year-over-year drop in September, to a decline of 24.5 percent in October, 17.5 percent in November and 11.4 percent in December.
That left a full year down 9.3 percent compared to 2000, the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism said today.
Visitors spent $10.1 billion in the islands last year, down from $10.9 billion in the previous year.
It was well short of the record $11.1 billion chalked up in 1997 but, given the world-wide tourism plunge that followed the Sept. 11 hijackings, overall Hawaii visitor statistics for 2001 showed remarkable resilience, said the DBEDT report issued today.
"While the yearly visitor numbers were significantly off from the records of recent years as a result of 9/11, we are quite encouraged by the continued strength in visitor spending," said Seiji Naya, DBEDT director.
Spending by visitors from the U.S. West grew last year, while a drop-off in visitors from Japan and from some U.S. areas caused total spending to decline.
Per-person, per-day spending was $169, up a dollar from the 2000 average of $168.
Japanese tourists continued to outspend others, at an average of $241 per person per day. Visitors from elsewhere in Asia spent average of $175 a day, followed by Oceania (Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands) at $169 and Latin America at $163. Americans trailed all those, with visitors from the U.S. East spending an average $160 a day and U.S. West travelers spending an average of $150 a day. Canadians spent $152 each per day.
The comprehensive report and the spreadsheets issued with it show how the western states helped lessen the damage.
Arrivals from those states were down only 2.5 percent for the year.
After Sept. 11, a larger share of arrivals from most areas had been to Hawaii before. For the first time, Japanese repeat visitors outnumbered Japanese trying the islands for the first time, the report said.
In all, 51.5 percent of the Japanese arrivals in 2002 had already been to Hawaii at least once. Of the total arrivals from all sources, 61.1 percent were repeat visitors, up from 59 percent in 2000.
Monthly reports so far this year have held steady, still below last year's but by not by a huge amount. For the six months through June of this year, visitor arrivals were down 8.8 percent from the same time last year.
See the full report on the Web at www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/stats.html.