Visitors to Hawaii off
30% in October

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Formal state figures for October have confirmed the big decline in travel to the islands that has already been felt by hundreds of businesses and thousands of employees.

The official count showed 387,1163 visitor arrivals last month, down 30.3 percent from 555,581 in the previous October. Those who did come stayed longer, however, so the decline in visitor days -- the number of arrivals times the number of days they stayed -- was not as severe, a 25.6 percent drop to 3.5 million from a year-earlier 4.7 million.

The average length of stay among all arrivals last month was 9.1 days, a 6.8 percent increase from 8.53 days in the previous October.

The visitor count dropped on all islands, according to the figures issued yesterday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism. Oahu fared worst, with a year-over-year decline of 31.2 percent, largely because of a big statewide drop in the number of Japanese visitors, who tend to stay on Oahu.

Maui was down 30.3 percent, the Big Island was down 22.3 percent, Kauai was down 22.1 percent, Lanai was down 20.3 percent and Molokai was down 9.6 percent.

The number of tourists in Hawaii on average day last month dropped by nearly 40,000, or 25.6 percent, to an average daily census of 113,677, from a year-earlier 152,809.

The reluctance of the Japanese to travel after Sept. 11 showed in a severe 51.4 percent decline, a drop of more than 79,000 people for an October total of 67,440, compared to 146,880 in October 2000.

There is hope that the numbers will pick up later in the year, said Seiji Naya, DBEDT director. "We anticipate that the additional $10 million approved for an emergency tourism marketing campaign ... will help to stabilize our visitor industry.

"The campaign targets the top 20 markets in the U.S. and Canada and the top three cities in Japan," he said.

One thing the official count showed was the accuracy of the daily count issued by DBEDT. It showed a 27.1 percent decline for October. The posting at www.hawaii.gov/ dbedt/special is a count of all passenger arrivals, including Hawaii residents, who are not included in month-end visitor statistics.