Record February for tourism
Howard Dicus
The state's wrap-up report on last month's visitor spending shows it was the best February for tourism that Hawaii has ever had.
"Visitor arrivals exceeded all expectations," said Tourism Liaison Marsha Wienert. "U.S. East arrivals increased 11.4 percent and U.S. West arrivals increased 6.5 percent compared to February 2004. When you combine that with an increase of 5.7 percent in Japanese arrivals, February was an outstanding month."
The good news at a glance:
* Visitor arrivals were up 6.8 percent.
* Domestic arrivals rose 8.7 percent to a record 403,552.
* International arrivals rose 2.7 percent to 169,660.
* Japanese arrivals rose 5.7 percent to 122,513.
* Visitor days rose 5.5 percent to 5.3 million.
* Visitor spending rose 4.1 percent to $864.2 million.
* Cruise traffic rose 19.6 percent to 20,079.
For January and February together, a record 788,659 visitors stayed for a total of 9.9 percent more days. International arrivals for the two months together were up 14.8 percent. Cruise passengers rose 32.5 percent. Visitor spending for the two months together rose 7.9 percent to $1.8 billion. The combined figures are useful because they remove any confusion caused by the NFL Pro Bowl, whose 25,400-visitor impact moved with the calendar.
The average daily census of visitors so far this year is roughly 194,000, compared to less than 174,000 last year at the same time.
One thing hasn't changed: two out of three visitors have been here before. The repeat volume was 64 percent last year at this time, and now it's 64.9 percent.
Around the islands:
* Kauai: The Garden Isle got 79,000 visitors in February, down 2.1 percent from last year, though year-to-date arrivals are running ahead 3 percent.
* Oahu: International arrivals to Honolulu were only slightly higher last month, but mainland arrivals were up 6 percent and average domestic length of stay also rose. Honolulu got 212,000 domestic and 151,000 foreign visitors. Oahu was the only island that got more U.S. East than U.S. West visitors.
* Maui: The Valley Isle got 154,000 domestic visitors in February, up almost 9 percent, more than making up for a roughly 4 percent decline in international arrivals to fewer than 25,000. Arrivals declined on both Lanai and Molokai, which together counted fewer than 12,000 visitors, some of whom are double-counted because they visited both islands.
* Big Island: Hawaii County saw domestic arrivals spike almost 26 percent last month to nearly 93,000, while international arrivals rose more than 4 percent to add another 27,000 visitors to the mix, putting total arrivals up 20 percent to nearly 120,000.
Regional breakdowns for visitor days in February:
* From U.S. West: 1.95 million visitor days (205,741 visitors staying an average 9.5 days). U.S. West visitors spent $280 million, up slightly from last year.
* From U.S. East: 1.81 million (170,903 visitors staying an average 10.6 days). U.S. East visitors spent $296.3 million, up 15.8 percent from last year and the most of any group.
* From Japan: 680,000 (122,513 visitors staying an average 5.5 days). Japanese visitors spent $169.9 million, down slightly from last year.
* From Canada: 467,000 (33,539 visitors staying an average 14 days). Canadian visitors spent $61.3 million, up 9.3 percent from last year.
Honeymoon traffic to Hawaii was up 16.7 percent from year-before levels in February, the state reported Monday, but business travel, visits to friends and families, and conventional vacation traffic all rose, too.
Reach Howard Dicus at hdicus@bizjournals.com
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