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Isle attractions’
attendance falls
Revenues, however, showed
By Russ Lynch
a slight gain in the first quarter
despite a 3% drop in customers
Star-BulletinHawaii tourist attractions, such as boat rides, theme parks and cultural centers, managed to keep their first-quarter revenues even with last year's despite a 3 percent dip in attendance.
They did it by getting creative in finding new ways to entice tourists to spend money, the Hawaii Attractions Association said today.
In all, 1.4 million people passed through their gates in the first three months of this year, a drop of more than 43,000 from 1.44 million in the 1999 quarter, according to a survey done for the association by Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP.
The attractions were hit by the early January tourism industry slump caused by Y2K worries and a decline in the number of Asia-Pacific visitors, which more than erased a rise in westbound visitors.
But they still lifted their combined revenues slightly, a 0.2 percent gain to $31.4 million in the latest three months from $31.35 million a year earlier.
That amounted to a 3.3 percent increase in spending per attendee, the association said.
"Revenues at our attractions varied from flat with last year to a 5 percent increase," said Darrell Metzger, president and chief executive officer of Atlantis Adventures.
"We give them more opportunity to spend money," he said today.
"At Sea Life Park, we instituted a feeding program, where they can pay a dollar or two to feed the sea lions" or the baby stingrays, he said.
The program at the Atlantis-managed park, where tourists swim with dolphins, now includes an opportunity for the tourists to buy photos of themselves in the water with the animals. The shuttle boat taking guests to the company's submarines off Waikiki now has a souvenir shop.
The Polynesian Cultural Center had strong first-quarter growth despite a poor January, said Alfred Grace, vice president for sales. The center had some large groups from Japan as well as the mainland, and its Korean business showed significant growth, he said.
The survey included data from such other attractions as the Bishop Museum, Dole Plantations, the Kodak Hula Show and the USS Arizona Memorial.
The attractions overall had 412,776 Asia-Pacific visitors in the latest quarter, down 12.2 percent from 469,960 in the 1999 period. Westbound attendees totaled 843,300, up 2.6 percent from 821,964.
And the sites recorded 106,289 local residents, 3.1 percent from 109,633.
First-quarter attendance included 33,091 complimentary tickets, down 11.1 percent from 37,213 in the 1999 period.
