Hawaiian Air taps a trend Down Under

Hawaiian Airlines has launched a "Short Breaks Hawaii" website — Short BreaksHawaii.com.au — to encourage Australians to take short breaks to the islands.

Never mind that round-trip flying time between Australia and Hono­lulu takes more than 18 hours and the current crop of visitors from Down Under typically spend around nine days on their vacations to the Hawaiian Islands.

The carrier, which marked its first decade of service to Australia last year, wants to tap into the trend of Australians taking shorter breaks throughout the year instead of a long holiday.

"There is an overwhelming amount of research out there now that shows Australians have moved away from what was once the traditional one long annual holiday, to instead taking a number of short breaks throughout the year," said Gai Tyrrell, Hawaiian Airlines’ regional director for Australia and New Zealand.

For example, according to Tourism Research Australia’s latest State of the Industry report, outbound trips per every 100 Australians increased from 26 trips in March 2006 to 42 in March 2014.

Avi Mannis, Hawaiian’s senior vice president of marketing, said the changes in travel behavior go back at least five or six years.

"It’s probably a longer-term trend that we’ve grown more conscious of in the last year or two. As the pace of life increases, people have less time to take longer holidays," Mannis said. "We are seeing more frequent holidays with an emphasis on the quality rather than the number of days." 

At first glance Hawaii wouldn’t be a top contender for a quick getaway from Australia given the sheer distance to get here and the overall cost. However, Mannis said schedules allow travelers to make the most of their on-the-ground time. Flights leave around 9:30 p.m. from Australia and get into Hawaii the same day. Coming back, flights leave at 1 or 2 p.m. and typically arrive around 7:30 p.m.

"That’s a pretty conducive schedule to getting away," Mannis said, adding that some Australian consumers, who hark back to the days when Hawaii was a fueling stop on the way to other destinations, already might consider the isles as a good short-break choice.

To really make the concept work, Hawaiian and its travel partners will have to stand up to short-trip competition from less expensive destinations such as Bali, Fiji and Thailand. In 2014, Research from MasterCard Worldwide showed that an average day of spending in Hawaii would stretch to 1.6 days in Bali and 1.8 days in Fiji. Bali and Fiji are closer as well.

Mannis said the cost differential combined with less favorable currencies is exactly why this is the right time for Hawaiian to launch short breaks.

"When you shorten the trip, it becomes considerably more affordable," he said.

And, Mannis said, Hawaii offers a full breadth of experiences to cement the value proposition.

"What makes Hawaii such an exciting prospect for short breaks from Australia is the amount of stuff that you can do in four days," he said.

The site provides six sample three-night itineraries to show travelers how to do the most with the least amount of time in Hawaii. They include Discover Oahu, Family Fun, Indulge Under the Hawaiian Sun, Girls’ Getaway, Romantic Escape and Adventure in Hawaii.

Hawaiian is partnering with travel partners Hello World, Hoot and Flight Centre’s Infinity Holidays to give the concept lift. But travelers can book a package through the travel company of their choice or build their own itinerary. The campaign for the new site, which has been soft-launched, will ramp up through this month.

The new push is also timed to take advantage of the 13.2 percent projected overall air seat increase that Hawaii Tourism Authority anticipates will come from Oceania in the third quarter. The new capacity will make Oceania second only to Canada as the fastest-growing region for inbound third-quarter capacity.

Daniel Nahoopii, director of HTA tourism research, said Australia is serviced directly by Hawaiian, Jet­star and Qan­tas. Some travelers also fly one-stop to x, Fiji, and then transfer to Sydney. His third-quarter seat forecast expects overall air seats from these carriers will rise to 127,067 from the 112,225 attained during the third quarter of 2014. These results should help push Oceania’s year-over-year air seat tally up 17.8 percent to 371,979 seats.

"The largest increase in third-quarter Oceania capacity is expected to come from Brisbane, which will rise 78.5 percent with the launch of Jet­star Airways flights and Hawaiian Airlines’ switch from Boeing 767 to larger Airbus A330 aircraft," Nahoo­pii said.

Meanwhile, Nahoopii said, third-quarter capacity increases from Jet­star Airways and Qan­tas should generate a 7.6 percent rise in seats from Sydney.

"It’s a very competitive market and one in which there has been growth in the past few years," Mannis said. "But we like our competitive position. We still see robust demand and long-term opportunity there." 

That’s good news for Hawaii since Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane were named among the Asia-Pacific cities that were expected to see international travel growth from higher-income households. According to 2013 research from MasterCard Worldwide, outbound international travel by households that have income above $100,000 from these three cities is expected to grow 4.8 percent through 2020.

Overall, Australia remains a small but important market for Hawaii. Through May the HTA reported that Hawaii welcomed 127,419 visitors, who pumped $307 million into the state’s economy.