Promising news for Hawaii Tourism

Hawaii experienced for the third consecutive month (since September 2010) a total visitor spending increase by double digits on all islands.

Total spending by visitors who came to Hawaii in November 2010 rose by +30.4% year-on-year to US$976 million. Total expenditures for the first 11 months of 2010 were US$10.3 billion, a +16% increase compared to the same period last year, according to preliminary statistics released by the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

The growth in visitor spending for November 2010 was due to higher average daily visitor spending (+10.5%), and a +18.2% increase in total arrivals to 577,540 visitors.

Total arrivals by air grew +17.6% from November 2009 to 560,588 visitors. Canada (+28.2%), US West (+23%) and US East (+18.1%) showed double-digit growth, while arrivals from Japan rose by +3.3% from last November. Arrivals by cruise ships increased +43.5% to 16,952 visitors.

For the first 11 months of 2010, total visitor days for all visitors increased +8.9% compared to year-to-date 2009, and total arrivals rose +8.6% to 6,450,795 visitors.

In the key Japanese market, so crucial to travel retailers in Hawaii, November 2010 saw healthy increases in daily visitor spending (US$303 per person, from US$282 per person in 2009) and arrivals (+3.3%). This contributed to growth of +8.9% in total Japanese visitor spending to US$166.4 million.

Total spending by Japanese visitors in the first 11 months of 2010 was US$1.73 billion, up by +5% from the same period last year. Total Japanese arrivals rose +4.9%, but year-to-date average daily spending continued to be slightly lower at US$266 per person, compared to US$268 per person in year-to-date 2009.