January tourism sets
new high mark

A weak dollar helps the visitor
total jump 15.9% to 600,000

Double-digit increases in the number of visitors from Japan and the U.S. mainland pushed January tourism arrivals up 15.9 percent to a record for the month, according to new state data.

Nearly 600,000 visitors came to Hawaii in January, up from 517,567 in January 2004, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

The number of mainland visitors jumped 10.7 percent to 385,107, while Japanese arrivals grew by nearly one-fifth, to 131,793.

All islands saw more visitors, though the Big Island grew the most, jumping almost one-third to 127,225 arrivals in January.

Hawaii capitalized on strong tourism nationwide, plus the dollar's weakness against the euro, said Robert Calhoun, Hawaii/Asia regional vice president of sales and marketing for Marriott Vacation Club International.

The dollar hit a record low of $1.37 per euro at the end of last year. The weak dollar makes it more expensive for people to travel to Europe, to Hawaii's benefit.

"Tourism countrywide is certainly on an upswing," Calhoun said.

The number of air seats to Hawaii also helped boost the numbers, state tourism liaison Marsha Wienert said, with domestic seats growing more than 11 percent and the number of international seats increasing 15 percent.

Calhoun said he expects the rest of 2005 to remain similarly strong.

"We don't see any slowdown at all," he said.

While the state might attract a record number of arrivals this year, it could be tough to maintain the same growth rate it saw in 2004.

"We're hoping for a good year, but you're not going to have the year-on-year increases that we've had in the past," said Sharon Weiner, group vice president, business development, for duty-free retailer DFS Hawaii.

The number of arrivals posted large percentage gains last year, Weiner said, because it was compared with 2003, which was much weaker. It will be tougher to post similar increases this year, since the state ended 2004 with a near-record 6.9 million visitors.

But, she said, "January was better than expected."

Visitor spending totaled nearly $961 million in January, an 11.6 percent rise. Japanese visitors continued to spend the most, averaging $243 a day, though that figure dipped by about $11 a day.

Visitors from the western United States and Canada also spent less per day, while visitors from the eastern United States spent 1.2 percent more per day, $161.50.

The number of cruise ship visitors jumped 46.6 percent to 22,555, with the increase attributable to the addition of the Hawaii-based Pride of Aloha ship.