Hawaii economist says visitor arrivals could fall in 2017
KAT WADE / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER 2012
Eugene Tian, chief economist for the state DBEDT, said visitor arrivals could decrease by as much as 1.3 percent this year.
Hawaii’s economic growth is slowing even as the tourism industry keeps cranking out record numbers.
One of the state’s leading economists said today that visitor arrivals could decline this year because of a published schedule that shows air seats to Hawaii will decrease 0.5 percent in 2017.
“If we correlate air seats with the supply side of tourism, visitor arrivals will decrease by as low as 1.3 percent,” Eugene Tian said at the annual Pacific Asia Travel Association-Travel and Tourism Research Association 2017 Outlook and Economic Forecast Forum at the Ala Moana Hotel. “But the load factor (percentage of airline seats filled) will change the visitor arrivals. If the load factor increases to 90 percent (from what he estimates was higher than 85 percent in 2016), we will be up about 1.8 percent. So visitor arrivals will be from a negative 1.3 percent to a positive 1.8 percent.”
Tian, chief economist for the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, said the state will revise its numbers on Wednesday when it releases its quarterly economic forecast.
His projection comes just three days after the Hawaii Tourism Authority announced that both visitor arrivals and spending hit all-time highs for the fifth year in a row.
Arrivals rose 3 percent to 8.94 million while spending increased 4.2 percent to $15.61 billion, according to preliminary data released Monday by the Hawaii Tourism Authority. Airlines also transported a record 12 million air seats from mainland and international destinations to Hawaii, HTA said.
4 responses to “Hawaii economist says visitor arrivals could fall in 2017”
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No problem cuz if our visitor arrivals fall, they will increase our taxes to make up the difference.
I sure hope so we have too many as it is.
Obviously you don’t pay any taxes. More likely you ‘re just another tax grazer.
I’d gladly trade a few hundred thousand tax eaters like you for the same amount of tax paying tourists.
Hawaii, the economy is falling and your corrupt Democrat Party wants to raise your taxes to build corrupt crony projects to enrich their friends. Makes sense? Well then vote for the corrupt Democrats again and again, elections have consequences.