Shelly and Al Olsen’s love affair with Hawaii began 30 years ago when they honeymooned in the islands, and it has lasted as long as their marriage.
"Hawaii is a wonderful, wonderful place," said Shelly Olsen, who was staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort in Room 3101, the Rainbow Tower room where the Canadian couple spent their honeymoon. "We took pictures of the view when we arrived and posted them on Facebook. My dad said, ‘That’s what heaven must look like.’"
Repeat visitors like the Olsens are the bread and butter of the state’s $15 billion tourism industry. Last year 65.1 percent of visitors flying into Hawaii were repeaters, up a smidge from 65 percent in 2012.
"Repeat visitors are No. 1," said David Means, Hilton Hawaiian Village’s director of rooms. "Not only do they repeat, but they use word of mouth to tell other friends about Hawaii. Throughout the year I’ll meet guests that are friends of so-and-so’s and were told to look me up. It’s a huge market for us."
But some industry executives worry that other outside forces, including Hawaii’s growing homeless problem and rising hotel room rates and airfares, could be causing some repeaters to look elsewhere.
"The homeless challenge has created an entirely new dynamic on the industry," said Jerry Gibson, area vice president of Hilton Hawaii. "Compared to previous years, businesses in Waikiki have now learned to deal with the tremendous amount of social ills that come with this sad situation. In the past we did not have to be overly concerned with negative interaction on streets, beaches and public areas. Now hotels and businesses have to be ever vigilant to protect guests’ interests."
Nicole Smith, a visitor from Thousand Oaks, Calif., had to steer her children away from a homeless man passed out on the beach on a recent weekday.
"The homeless problem seems more pronounced than in years past," Smith said. "Certainly, I feel for people. I don’t want to make any judgments. However, some people who come here on vacation probably don’t think of it as a place where homeless people live. It might not fit into their image of Hawaii as a paradise."
Smith said she’ll be back to Hawaii despite Waikiki’s homeless population.
Barry Wallace, executive vice president of hospitality services for Outrigger Hotels and Resorts, said stronger competition from competitive destinations that are cheaper and closer also could be a threat to repeat visitors for Hawaii.
"Mexico has come back strong," he said. "They were up 10 to 15 percent for the first two months of the year. We draw mostly from the West Coast, so for our visitors Mexico is the biggest competitor — it’s closer and cheaper."
And while repeat visitors to Hawaii have mostly increased since the late 1990s, the Hawaii Tourism Authority reported that the percentage of repeaters has shrunk slightly during the first two months of this year. Through February 66.3 percent of visitors flying to Hawaii were repeaters, down from 67.3 percent during the same period in 2013.
Repeat visitors arriving in the first two months of the year had been here on average more than five times, a number that dropped slightly from January-February 2013.
"One of the causes (for this year’s decrease) was the proportion of more international visitors than last year," said Daniel Nahoopii, HTA’s director of tourism research. "Since many of them are first-timers, that increases the percentage of first-time ratio. There also was a slight increase in domestic first-timers mainly due to higher number of corporate meetings."
That’s good since tourism executives view repeaters as necessary but not sufficient for a healthy industry.
Repeaters tend to spend less on subsequent visits and participate in fewer activities. And eventually they stop coming, so long-term growth depends on cultivating new markets where the potential to attract more first-time visitors is higher.
Even so, about 64.2 percent of U.S. East travelers, who visited Hawaii during the first two months of the year, had been here before. The share of repeat visitors from Hawaii’s top U.S. West market during the first two months of the year was even higher at 83.7 percent.
Among travelers from Japan, Hawaii’s largest international market, about 55.1 percent had previously come to visit.
The Olsens, who also visited Hawaii together in 1985 and 2009, haven’t even left, but already are planning their next island trip.
"We’d like to bring the kids out for the holidays," said Al Olsen, who still carries a photo of the couple taken at Tavana’s Polynesian Review during their 1984 Hawaii honeymoon. "We want to create more memories."
