TOTAL VISITOR SPENDING ROSE 2.6 PERCENT TO $1.4 BILLION IN JULY 2014

Total Arrivals Grew 2.5 Percent While Length of Stay Decreased

News Release from HTA August 27, 2014

HONOLULU – Total expenditures by visitors who came to the Hawaiian Islands in July 2014 rose 2.6 percent from the same month last year to $1.4 billion, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority. While total arrivals grew 2.5 percent to 772,106 visitors, a shorter average length of stay (-3% to 9.12 days) resulted in flat growth in visitor days (-0.6%). Average daily spending was higher for most visitor markets compared to July 2013.

In July 2014, arrivals by air increased 2.4 percent to 771,244 visitors and one cruise ship visited Hawai‘i with 863 visitors (+80%).

Arrivals by air from U.S. West rose 5.1 percent to 327,325 visitors in July 2014, the first increase after 11 months of declines. Increased daily spending (+4.5% to $155 per person) also contributed to a 7.4 percent growth in U.S. West visitor expenditures to $483.9 million. While U.S. East arrivals of 175,739 visitors declined 1 percent from July 2013, higher daily spending (+5.6% to $207 per person) led to a 4.2 percent gain in visitor expenditures to $380.1 million.

Expenditures by Japanese visitors rose 3.1 percent to $205.7 million in July 2014, bolstered by growth in arrivals (+1.6% to 131,229 visitors) and increased daily spending (+7% to $268 per person). During their low season, Canadian visitors spent a total of $44.6 million, down 16 percent from July 2013. Canadian arrivals dropped 7.4 percent to 27,790 visitors. Arrivals from All Other markets totaled 112,162 visitors (+3.9%) with combined expenditures of $238.2 million (-5.1%).

Among the four larger Hawaiian Islands, arrivals grew on Kaua‘i (+3.1%), Hawai‘i Island (+3%) and O‘ahu (+1.5%), while Maui remained stable (+0.2%) compared to July 2013. Visitor expenditures increased on Maui (+8.2%), Kaua‘i (+5%) and Hawai‘i Island (+1.7%) while visitors expenditures on O‘ahu were unchanged. However, this month, visitors stayed a shorter period of time on each island compared to July 2013.

Air capacity to Hawai‘i was up 3.7 percent to 1,032,625 total air seats in July 2014. Scheduled seats from Canada (+21.2%), Other Asia (+17.1%), Oceania (+8%), U.S. West (+6%) and U.S. East (+4.2%) increased, offsetting fewer seats from Japan (-5%).

Year-to-date 2014:

Boosted by higher average daily spending (+2.5%), total expenditures by all visitors (by air and by cruise ship) increased 2.5 percent to $8.7 billion. However, total arrivals barely increased to 4,867,057 visitors (+0.3%) over the first seven months of 2013.

Air arrivals from U.S. West declined 1.7 percent, while arrivals from Japan (+2%), Canada (+2.3%), Other Asia (+21.3%), Europe (+9%) and Oceania (+6.3%) increased, and U.S. East remained relatively unchanged (-0.2%) from a year ago. Visitor expenditures from U.S. West (+1.3% to $2.9 billion), U.S. East (+3.3% to $2.3 billion) and Canada (+4.2% to $688.6 million) were higher but Japanese visitor spending declined (-1.6% to $1.4 billion).

Read ... Entire News Release