STAR-BULLETIN FILE
Japanese tourists, who stayed away from Hawaii during the Iraq war and the SARS outbreak, are once again returning to the islands.
Japanese arrivals
continue reboundVisitors from the country
increased 1.9% last month
although the overall number
of tourists was flat
Japanese visitor arrivals in November showed continuing recovery from the war with Iraq and SARS, while mainland arrivals were mixed.
Some 495,101 visitors came to the islands last month, compared with 493,521 arrivals in the same month last year, according to figures released yesterday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.
U.S. West arrivals rose 5.6 percent, U.S. East visitors decreased 1.6 percent, while Japanese arrivals were up 1.9 percent, marking the first year-over-year increase in Japanese visitors since the war with Iraq broke out in March.
Japanese arrivals had plunged as much as 40 percent in late spring, then began to slowly recover and were down just 11.1 percent heading into the final month of this year.
Boosting Japanese tourism, the yen was below 110 to the dollar through much of November, compared with 120 to the dollar in late July. Businesses say the yen's strength will boost Japanese arrivals and visitor spending.
Still, because of the drop-off in Japanese arrivals earlier this year, the state projects that spending by the Japanese will finish the year down 9.8 percent from last year, to $1.8 billion.
Domestic visitors made up more than two-thirds of total visitor arrivals in November, and the total visitor days -- the number of domestic visitors multiplied by their average stay in the islands -- hit a record in November. Domestic visitors were here for an average 10.6 days, while Japanese visitors stayed nearly half as long, 5.5 days.
The total number of visitors days in November dropped 1.7 percent from the same month last year.
Only 39 percent of all travelers were first-time visitors, while repeat visitors made up 61 percent of the market. Also, because travelers visited fewer islands in November, visitor arrivals on every island were down from last year.
Business travelers who came for conventions, meetings and incentive travel increased 17.9 percent to 33,713 arrivals from 28,601.
Hawaii's hotels and resort condominiums were 68.6 percent full in November, basically the same occupancy as last year, while room revenues increased 4.5 percent to $94.65, according to the latest monthly survey from PKF-Hawaii.
Oahu occupancy slipped to 71.9 percent from 74.8 percent last year, and Big Island occupancy fell to 60.9 percent from 64 percent. Maui occupancy rose to 68.6 percent from 64.1 percent, and Kauai occupancy went up to 68.3 percent from 63.4 percent. Molokai's occupancy increased to 58.6 percent from 52.2 percent.
West Maui had the highest average occupancy in the state, at nearly 76 percent.
The state expects 6.4 million visitors will come to Hawaii in 2003, down slightly from 6.45 million arrivals in 2002. The state projects it will be visited by 1.3 million Japanese, down from the 2.2 million who came in 1997.
Total visitor spending in 2003 is projected to increase 4.8 percent to roughly $10.5 billion from $10 billion last year, thanks to longer stays by domestic visitors.
