Visitor arrivals
down in August

West Coast tourists continue
to close gap from Japan shortfall

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By Tim Ruel
truel@starbulletin.com

The bad news is visitor arrivals fell in August and the Japan market is still down 20 percent. The good news is arrivals for the rest of the year are looking to be ahead of last year's post-Sept. 11 blues.

A total of 616,394 travelers came to Hawaii last month, down 4.5 percent from 645,701 arrivals in the year before, according to a new report from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

The numbers are bound to look relatively brighter next month. In September 2001, total visitors dropped by 34 percent, a slump that began to improve earlier this year.

An increase in visitors from the West Coast continues to close the gap in arrivals caused by the reluctance of Japanese tourists to return to the islands after the terrorist attacks.

Arrivals from the U.S. West, which have been on the rise since May, were up 2.4 percent in August, to 269,607 from 263,416. Nearly half of Hawaii's domestic market came from California, the state said.

Hawaii received 147,837 visitors from Japan, down from 184,335 last year. Canadian visitors also came in fewer numbers, with arrivals down 16.5 percent to 9,748 from 11,667. Arrivals from the U.S. East were down slightly, to 125,868 from 127,062.

Unfortunately, Hawaii's prime growth market -- West Coast visitors -- is the only market that is spending less during trips this year. For the first seven months of the year, total visitor spending was down $350 million to $5.9 billion from $6.25 billion last year, according to the state's most recent data.

East Coast and Japanese visitors are actually spending more per trip this year, but that increase is undercut by their sun ken arrivals.

Seiji Naya, DBEDT director, said August's overall arrivals were helped by the week-long convention of the National Medical Association, which brought 8,000 attendees to the Hawaii Convention Center. The group is the nation's oldest and largest association that represents African American physicians.

The number of visitors on honeymoon also rose in August, up 10 percent to 40,142 from 36,586.

Arrivals were markedly different for each island. Oahu and Kauai lost visitors; Maui and the Big Island slightly gained visitors; and Molokai and Lanai got twice as many visitors as last year.

For the year to date, all of Hawaii had about 4.3 million arrivals, a loss of more than 300,000 people from 4.7 million last year.