Isles on pace to set tourism marks

Hawaii’s tourism industry is in a good position to match or break visitor arrival and spending records this year after gains in June and an expectation that airline capacity serving the state from North America will expand over the remainder of the year.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority on Monday released its latest report taking the pulse of the state’s biggest industry, and the figures for June included a 1.9 percent gain in arrivals and a 0.3 percent uptick in spending.

The increases for the month helped improve results for the first half of the year, as arrivals pulled within 2,600 tourists, or 0.1 percent, of the 2013 midyear mark, while the amount spent by vacationers climbed 2.5 percent, or $178 million, compared with the first six months of last year.

"Hawaii’s tourism economy continues to fare well and is on pace with last year’s record-breaking year in spending and arrivals," Mike McCartney, HTA president and CEO, said in a statement.

McCartney said HTA anticipates a bump in airline passenger capacity from North America in the second half of the year, specifically out of Los Angeles and Seattle, that could benefit Hawaii tourism.

However, McCartney also said that forecasting demand from vacationers has become more uncertain because travelers are increasingly booking trips closer to departure — typically about 30 days in advance compared with three to six months.

Hawaii tourism set a record last year with 8.17 million arrivals and $14.5 billion in spending which broke the previous record, set in 2012, of 8.03 million arrivals and $14.25 billion in spending.

McCartney said maintaining last year’s momentum is a priority for the agency, which is holding a tourism industry conference Aug. 28 and 29 at the Hawai’i Convention Center.

In June the industry built on last year’s momentum by welcoming 725,066 vacationers to Hawaii, or 13,737 more than the same month last year.

From Hawaii’s primary market, the U.S. West, arrivals in June slipped 1.1 percent. Arrivals from the U.S. East slipped 0.2 percent. There also was a 4.6 percent decline in Canadian arrivals. However, those soft spots were more than offset by a 7 percent gain in visitors from Japan and a 9.7 percent jump from all other markets.

Two foreign cruise ships also visited in June, adding 1,403 ocean arrivals to the visitor count compared with none in the same month last year.

By island, only Oahu and Molokai experienced gains, while other islands saw declines.

With regard to spending, the 0.3 percent gain in June represented an additional $3.8 million out of about $1.29 billion. The slight spending increase was primarily driven by U.S. West visitors and took place on Oahu, Maui and Molokai.

Ron Williams, CEO of Atlantis Adventures, which operates submarine, dinner and whale-watching cruises on Oahu, Maui and Hawaii island, said business is generally doing better on the neighbor islands. "We’re seeing good activity there," he said.

Atlantis is seeing somewhat flat activity on Oahu, and Williams suspects that the cost of a Hawaii vacation is keeping a lid on what visitors spend on optional activities like tours. Still, he can’t complain about growth overall in the industry, and said, "At the end of the day, I think it’s all good."

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