Isle visitor arrivals drop 1% last month
April did not shower Hawaii's visitor market with good fortune, but instead gave the state's lead industry continued declines in both arrivals and spending.
More visitors from the U.S. West and Canada traveled to Hawaii last month, but visitors from the U.S. East and Japan continued to dwindle, according to data released yesterday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.
Overall, the state's total visitor arrivals in April dropped to 582,466, a 1.0 percent reduction from last April's record-breaking numbers. An 8.9 percent drop in visitors from Japan and a 1.4 percent reduction in U.S. East visitors contributed to the month's decline.
The drop in April visitor counts caused overall visitor expenditures to fall 1.9 percent to $878.3 million.
"Overall, Hawaii's visitor industry continues to do well, especially as it is compared to the past two record-breaking years," said State Tourism Liaison Marsha Wienert.
Arrivals from the U.S. West, Hawaii's core market, jumped 4.6 percent and arrivals from Canada increased by 9.4 percent in April, Wienert said.
"The domestic market continues to be the backbone of Hawaii's tourism industry as witnessed by the strong performance of the U.S. West," she said.
Year to date, Hawaii's visitor count is trailing 2006 by 1.1 percent. However, spending over the same period is still up by 1.2 percent. Growth in spending from the U.S. West, which rose 7.4 percent year to date, and Canada, which has posted an increase of 1.8 percent, has offset a reduction in spending from the U.S. East and Japan.