Canadian visitors Andrea and Basil Grabarczyk and their three children were happy to be playing beach football on the sands outside of Waikiki on Wednesday instead of back home shoveling snow.
"We missed three blizzards this trip," said Andrea Grabarczyk, who was on a repeat visit to the islands. "The morning we left, my husband had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to clear the driveway so that we could get to the airport. It was so worth it. We love it here."
Happy visitors like these helped propel Hawaii tourism to a record-setting season last year. However, preliminary results indicate that tying last year’s performance might be the best Hawaii’s visitor industry can hope to attain. Visitor arrivals in January were flat against the same month last year, and visitor spending during the same period dropped for the fifth consecutive month, according to statistics released Thursday by the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA).
Some 682,634 visitors came to the Hawaiian Islands in January, an increase of 0.1 percent, and spent $1.37 billion on a nonseasonally adjusted basis while they were here. Total visitor spending dropped by 4.7 percent, and daily visitor spending declined to $191 per day about $10 per day less than January.
HTA President and CEO Mike McCartney said fluctuating currency exchange rates, growing competition and the increasing cost of a Hawaii vacation resulted in January spending losses.
"Hawaii’s tourism economy is starting to plateau following two years of record-breaking growth," McCartney said."We anticipate seeing this trend continue into the first and second quarters of 2014."
Tourists from Hawaii’s core U.S. West market dropped 4.6 percent in January, and U.S. East arrivals dropped by 4.1 percent. Arrivals from Japan rose 7 percent, but their spending declined 7.3 percent. Similarly, arrivals from Canada grew 4.2 percent; however, spending dropped 8.7 percent.
Arrivals from all other markets, including Asian nations outside of Japan, Europe, Oceania and Latin America, were up 9 percent to 90,396 visitors. However, spending from these markets was flat at $219 million.
Hawaii’s hotel occupancy was flat in January, said Barry Wallace, executive vice president of Outrigger Enterprises Group. In comparison, the reputation of Hawaii’s biggest competitor, Mexico, improved, resulting in robust hotel occupancy gains, Wallace said.
"Mexico has about 300,000 rooms, and we have about 50,000 to 60,000 here in Hawaii," he said. "If their occupancy is up about 10 to 15 percent, that’s potentially 30,000 rooms that are being occupied by a good chunk of people who might otherwise have gone to Hawaii."
While the cost of a Hawaii vacation is higher than it was three years ago and more than a trip to Mexico, Basil Grabarczyk said the quality of the experience brought the family back.
"We like coming here because of the American standard. We don’t have to worry about the quality of the food or water, health care or safety," he said.
Even so, Wallace said Hawaii hoteliers are working to stimulate more travel to Hawaii by offering competitive rates and value-added incentives like free breakfasts or extra room nights.
"Airlift is up and occupancy is down. We need to help airlines fill their planes so that they don’t cut seats or routes," he added.
The HTA reported 946,549 air seats to Hawaii in January, up 3.4 percent from January 2013. However, most of the growth came from international markets.
Despite a slow start to the year and disappointment looming over the second quarter, Wallace said summer looks robust.
"We’re hopeful that the pickup that we are seeing for summer will continue into the second half of the year," Wallace said. "Even if conditions improve, I doubt that we’ll surpass 2014. However, we’ll probably come in close, and that’s not such a bad thing."
