Tourist arrivals
down 2.4%

The number of isle visitors,
however, still represents
the second-best April ever

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By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Hawaii's tourist arrivals slipped 2.4 percent in April from a year ago, but longer stays almost made up the difference, according to monthly figures from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

Overall, last month was the second-strongest April on record.

April visitor days, the number of arrivals multiplied by the length of stay, dipped 0.8 percent, making state officials happy because April 2000 had been a record month.

"It is very encouraging that overall we are keeping pace with the outstanding results of last year," said Seiji Naya, DBEDT director.

A total of 558,253 people made trips to the islands last month, a decline of 13,722 from the 571,975 arrivals the previous April. But the average length of stay went up, to 8.59 days from 8.45 days the previous April.

That resulted in 4.80 million visitor days, a slight dip from 4.83 million in April 2000.

Arrivals from U.S. points were down 1.5 percent, at 371,154 compared to 376,937 in April last year, and the domestic-visitor length of stay declined slightly, to an average of 9.24 days from 9.32 days in April 2000.

Naya does not see that as a bad performance, given economic worries on the mainland.

"It is also good news that U.S. visitor arrivals continue to show strength despite the slowdown in the U.S. economy this year," he said.

Visitor days spent by U.S. tourists totaled 1.25 million last month, down 2.3 percent from 1.28 million a year ago.

The month posted strong figures despite a substantial fall-off in arrivals from Japan. Hawaii's visitor traffic from Japan dropped by more than 10,000 last month, compared to April 2000, a dip of 7.5 percent to 128,243 from a year-earlier 138,632.

But the average Japanese visitor stayed nearly a day longer, 6.39 days last month compared to 5.52 days the previous April, and that more than countered the downturn in the visitor count. The result was a 7 percent increase in Japanese visitor days, to 819,070 from 765,520.

Arrivals from all foreign points totaled 187,099 last month, down 4.1 percent from 195,038 the previous April.

Among the individual islands, only Molokai showed an increase in total visitors.

Oahu arrivals totaled 362,912, down 4.3 percent from 379,305 in April 2000. Kauai had the biggest slump, a decline of 10.7 percent to 80,867, from 90,572 in April 2000. Maui had 190,096 visitors last month, down 1.5 percent from 192,959 in the previous April.

Big Island arrivals dropped 7.8 percent, to 98,016 from 106,263, and Lanai had a 7 percent drop to 6,685 from 7,190.

Molokai arrivals rose 1.7 percent, to 5,005 from a year-earlier 4,921. DBEDT cautioned that the size of the visitor-arrivals samples for Lanai and Molokai is small, making the figures less reliable than those for the bigger islands.

Total tourist traffic through the first four months of the year was down 0.6 percent, at 2.28 million compared to 2.29 million in the January through April period of last year. Visitor days for the first four months of 2001, a total of 20.79 million, were down 1 percent from 21 million in the equivalent part of last year.