Tourism numbers Visits to Hawaii plunged 34 percent in September from a year ago, with Japanese tourist arrivals falling 44 percent as an immediate consequence of last month's terrorist attacks, the state said yesterday.
plummet, as figured
Totals are off 34 percent,
Japanese visits off 44 percentStar-Bulletin staff
Some 352,110 visitors came to Hawaii last month, dramatically down from 533,849 a year earlier. Of those, 235,239 arrivals came from within the United States, a 28 percent drop from 326,897 arrivals last year, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Japanese visits to the islands fell to 87,965 from 157,524 in September 2000, a decline of nearly 70,000 tourists. Daily updates of airline passenger counts show that arrivals this month are still well below their pre-Sept. 11 levels, with international tourism showing the least signs of recovery, the department said.
September's figures were hit particularly hard when all domestic flights were grounded for two days following Sept. 11 attacks, and international flights were down for three days, the state said.
The state noted that international arrivals figures actually received a boost when seven flights were temporarily diverted to Hawaii, and their 1,591 passengers were stranded here until planes were sent to pick them up.
Every major island in Hawaii took a hit in September. Oahu's total arrivals were down 34 percent, while Maui, Kauai and the Big Island saw drops of 39 percent, 27 percent and 30 percent respectively.
For the first nine months of the year, total visitor arrivals from the mainland are down 3.2 percent at 3.29 million people compared with 3.4 million in the same period last year. For the Japanese market, the year-to-date arrivals are down 6.6 percent to 1.28 million from 1.37 million. Before September, year-to-date arrivals had been down only slightly from the previous year.
