There are some good potential market opportunities in the Asia Pacific region which extend to South Korea, Australia, China and specific parts of Japan, a panel of government and local tourism industry experts said yesterday.

Between August 2007 and July 2008, there was an 8 percent increase in two-way passenger traffic from Australia and a 2 percent increase in two-way passenger traffic from South Korea, which has more potential once travel restrictions are eased.

Hawaii has its eyes set on China as an emerging visitor market, but two-way passenger traffic from China during the same period dropped 7 percent. Passenger traffic from Taiwan dropped 11 percent.

While passenger traffic from Japan dropped 19 percent, with declines coming from Tokyo and Osaka, there were increases coming from Nagoya and Fukuoka.

These and other findings were disclosed by Sabre Airline Solutions yesterday before the Pacific Asia Travel Association's Hawaii Chapter.

While tourism in the islands is in a slump, the state is pursuing every avenue it can to court potential new markets and new air carriers to Hawaii.

The state is moving forward on its $2.3 billion airport modernization plan, according to panelist Brian Sekiguchi, deputy director of the state Department of Transportation Airports Division, which will include a new parking structure, 11 new clean-diesel buses and a new international arrivals corridor slated for completion by fall 2010.

Meanwhile, the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau commissioned the Sabre study to understand the state's visitor industry from an airline perspective as well as to identify potential market opportunities for Hawaii.

Unlike visitor numbers tracked by the state, Sabre's numbers track the number of passengers going to and from Hawaii, which includes returning Hawaii residents in those numbers.

  Sabre's data showed that there has been no shortage of air seats to date to accommodate the number of passengers to Hawaii, according to Chris Kam, HVCB's director of market trends, who presented the findings.

The number of passengers to Hawaii rose slightly in the first quarter, then dropped dramatically beginning in March and continued declining into May. Airfares, meanwhile, increased between 13 and 16 percent.

The state is hoping to encourage airline carriers to explore new routes from different origination points as well as more seasonal charter flights to take advantage of events like the Honolulu Marathon in December.