VISITOR ARRIVALS REACHED NEW OCTOBER RECORD BUT TOTAL VISITOR SPENDING DECREASED 2.2 PERCENT

News Release from HTA November 30, 2015

HONOLULU – Total arrivals to the Hawaiian Islands reached a new record for the month of October, with a 4.8 percent growth to 692,930 visitors in October 2015, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority (HTA). Since March 2015, total visitors counts have exceeded previous monthly records.

Arrivals by air rose 3.9 percent to 674,699 visitors in October 2015, while arrivals by cruise ships were up 52.7 percent to 18,231 visitors. Total visitor days1 increased 3.9 percent compared to October 2014.

Growth in arrivals by air from U.S. West (+4.5% to 272,539) and U.S. East (+5.3% to 130,655) more than offset a 2 percent drop from Canada (to 29,395). Japanese arrivals of 134,989 visitors (+0.1%) was similar to October 2014. Arrivals from all other markets rose 7.8 percent to 107,121 visitors.

Although visitor counts surpassed October 2014, lower per person per day spending led to a 2.2 percent decrease in total visitor expenditures to $1.2 billion. Among the top four visitor markets, visitor expenditures increased from U.S. West (+1.1% to $406.3 million) and U.S. East (+1.8% to $268.1 million), but declined from Japan (-8.9% to $195.2 million) and Canada (-21.5% to $58 million).

All four larger Hawaiian Islands saw growth in arrivals compared to October 2014: Kaua‘i (+7.9%), O‘ahu (+3%), Maui (+1.1%) and Hawai‘i Island (+0.6%). There were gains in visitor expenditures for Maui (+1.4% to $312.1 million), Hawai‘i Island (+8.1% to $156.4 million) and Kaua‘i (+16.1% to $125.5 million), but visitor expenditures on O‘ahu dropped 9.3 percent to $554.9 million.

There were 928,866 total air seats to Hawai‘i in October 2015, which was an increase of 3.5 percent from last October. Growth in scheduled seats from Canada (+22.4%), Oceania (+18.5%), U.S. West (+4%), U.S. East (+2%) and Other Asia (+1.5%) offset a 2.8 percent drop in seats from Japan.

Year-to-date 2015

Through the first 10 months of 2015, total arrivals rose 4.2 percent and visitor spending increased 2.2 percent to $12.5 billion. Growth in arrivals from U.S. West (+7.2%) and U.S. East (+2.3%) compensated for slightly fewer visitors from Japan (-0.9%). Expenditures by U.S. West (+6.3% to $4.4 billion) and Canadian (+1.4% to $862.8 million) visitors increased, counter-balancing declines in U.S. East (-1.4% to $3.1 billion) and Japanese (-10% to $1.8 billion) visitor expenditures.

Maui (+5.3%), Kaua‘i (+4.9%), Hawai‘i Island (+4.2%) and O‘ahu (+2.5%) saw growth in arrivals compared to the first 10 months of 2014. Higher daily spending contributed to increased visitor expenditures on Maui (+5.9% to $3.5 billion) and Kaua‘i (+15% to $1.3 billion). Visitor expenditures on Hawai‘i Island (+0.9% to $1.6 billion) were slightly higher than last year, but O‘ahu visitor expenditures dropped 1.6 percent (to $6 billion).

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