TOTAL VISITOR EXPENDITURES INCREASED 3.4 PERCENT IN NOVEMBER 2014

Total Visitor Arrivals Rose 2.2 Percent

News Release from HTA December 30, 2014

HONOLULU – Total expenditures by visitors who came to the Hawaiian Islands in November 2014 increased 3.4 percent to $1.1 billion, compared to last November, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority (HTA). Total arrivals grew 2.2 percent to 637,664 visitors. The average daily spending of $194 per person was up in November 2014 from $192 per person last November.

Arrivals by air from U.S. West rose 4.3 percent to 267,696 visitors in November 2014. Higher daily spending (+4.5% to $162 per person) also contributed to a 7.4 percent growth in visitor expenditures to $398.9 million. While U.S. East arrivals of 108,872 visitors (-0.2%) were similar to November 2013, a noticeable increase in daily spending (+14.6% to $213 per person) elevated visitor expenditures to $237 million (+16.8%).

Despite growth in Japanese arrivals (+1.8% to 122,191 visitors), lower daily spending (-5.5% to $278 per person) resulted in a 4.7 percent decrease in visitor expenditures to $187.1 million.

Canadian arrivals of 45,604 visitors (+0.2%) were comparable to November 2013 but visitor expenditures fell 12.3 percent to $92 million.

Arrivals from All Other markets totaled 84,686 visitors (+8.8%) with combined expenditures of $183.6 million (-0.5%). Arrivals by cruise ships dropped 42.8 percent to 8,616 visitors.

Visitor arrivals grew on Hawai‘i Island (+4.8%), Maui (+3.6%) and O‘ahu (+2.7%) while arrivals to Kaua‘i (+0.2%) were about the same as November 2013. Visitor expenditures were higher on Maui (+16.8% to $314.1 million), Hawai‘i Island (+6.8% to $141.7 million) and Kaua‘i (+3.4% to $103 million). In contrast, visitor expenditures on O‘ahu declined (-3.7% to $530.4 million) compared to last November.

Air capacity to the Hawaiian Islands were up 2.8 percent to 887,913 total seats in November 2014.  Compared to a year ago, there were more scheduled seats from Oceania (+15.9%), U.S. East (+6%), U.S. West (+5.5%) and Canada (+5.4%) offsetting fewer seats from Japan (-8.1%).

Year-to-Date 2014:

Total expenditures by all visitors (by air and by cruise ship) rose 2.3 percent to $13.3 billion in the first 11 months of 2014, boosted by higher daily spending and a slight gain in arrivals (+0.9% to 7,517,413 visitors). Visitor expenditures from U.S. West (+3.3% to $4.5 billion), U.S. East (+3.9% to $3.3 billion) and Canada (+1.1% to $932 million) were higher, but Japanese visitor expenditures showed a loss of 3.4 percent to $2.2 billion.

Through the first 11 months of 2014, arrivals by air to O‘ahu rose 1.9 percent to 4,695,479 visitors.  Maui arrivals of 2,170,654 visitors were up 1.1 percent from year-to-date 2013. There were 1,305,986 visitors to Hawai‘i Island (-0.3%) and 1,012,649 visitors to Kaua‘i (-1%).

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