Visitor arrivals and spending rebounded in March largely due to gains from North America.
Total visitor arrivals grew 7 percent year-over-year to 780,056 visitors, according to preliminary statistics released Friday by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority. Total visitor spending also increased 3 percent to $1.3 billion from March 2014. Likewise, air capacity to the Hawaiian Islands rose by 6.5 percent year-over-year to 1.04 million seats.
As a result, March was the first month of 2015 that experienced a climb in both spending and arrivals. March’s industry performance also helped push year-to-date arrivals up 3 percent to 2.1 million visitors. However, visitor spending through March dropped 1.3 percent to $3.8 billion.
"Visitor expenditures for the state’s lead economic driver have plateaued during the first quarter of 2015 following three years of significant growth," said Ron Williams, chief executive officer of the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority.
Sam Shenkus, marketing director for the Royal Hawaiian Center, said that’s partly because visitors are much more careful about how they spend their money.
"For March we were even with last year, and we were delighted given that we were up against some really huge numbers," Shenkus said. "Still, we’re seeing more people making adjustments in their spending and dining. They are really checking retail prices. We also see lots of visitors rotating a food court meal with a restaurant meal or even buying prepackaged food at the ABC Stores."
While there’s still room for improvement in visitor spending, Williams said visitor arrivals during the first quarter increased due to greater air seat inventory and spring break falling earlier this year.
March arrivals from Hawaii’s core U.S. West market grew 13.3 percent year-over-year to 303,827 visitors. Spending from this market also climbed 12.1 percent to $434.2 million. According to HTA, a higher number of available air seats and a shift in spring break vacation schedules for West Coast schools from April 2014 to March contributed to the growth.
Likewise, visitor arrivals from the U.S. East rose 2.6 percent to 170,013; however, lower daily spending contributed to a 1.8 percent drop in visitor spending from this market to $299.7 million.
Canadian arrivals also rose 4.3 percent to 77,237 visitors. Thanks to increases in length of stay and daily spending, overall visitor expenditures from Canada grew 15.9 percent to $162.5 million.
Japan, Hawaii’s largest international market, continued to struggle with a 5.7 percent drop in arrivals, which fell to 127,400. Lower daily spending also caused overall visitor spending by travelers from Japan to drop 21.7 percent to $165.6 million.
The HTA attributed Japan’s decline to several factors, including the depreciation of the yen against the dollar, a refocus on domestic travel with the launch of the Hokuriku bullet train and the emergence of hotels and other infrastructure built for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
"During Golden Week the Kanazawa district in the Ishikawa prefecture was up about five times from the prior year," said Tsukasa Harufuku, chief executive officer of JTB Hawaii Inc. "Previously, it took more than four or five hours to get to this destination from Tokyo, but with the new train service it only takes two hours."
However, despite what is going on in Japan, Hawaii has maintained its positioning against the competition, said Eric Takahata, director of Hawaii Tourism Japan.
"Japanese visitors to Europe, China and Korea are all down by double digits into quarter two and three," Takahata said. "People from all segments in Japan are pulling back on travel, even the budget traveler who may go to Korea and China because they are cheaper."
Arrivals from all other markets, including Europe, Oceania, Latin America and Asian countries outside of Japan, rose 15.7 percent to 86,880 visitors. Spending from these markets rose 10.6 percent to $196 million.
"Since the U.S. dollar remains strong in some of our major international markets, we continue to work with our global contractors to roll out innovative campaigns like airline mileage promotions and other brand partnerships to ease the cost of travel to Hawaii," Williams said.
Eight out-of-state cruise ships with 14,698 visitors came in March, an increase of 38.8 percent from March 2014 when five ships came with 10,592 visitors. This was the first month of growth following six months of double-digit declines.
Going forward, Williams said HTA is pleased to welcome additional airlift from its core U.S. market with Virgin America’s inaugural flights to Oahu and Maui this fall.
"These routes will help to increase access and arrivals to the state and enhance HTA’s efforts to balance visitor distribution to all of the Hawaiian Islands," he said. "We continue to work with our global contractors and airline partners to sustain this boost in airlift and identify potential markets for growth."
