Hawaii visitor arrivals rise 4% in September as spending reaches $1.08B

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Tina Yuen

Visitors carry snorkel hear outside the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort & Spa at Ko Olina Resort. Hawaii visitor arrivals grew 4 percent in September, while spending increased by 1.4 percent, compared to the same month last year, the Hawaii Tourism Authority said.

Jason Ubay

Reporter- Pacific Business News

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Hawaii visitor spending for the month of September reached $1.08 billion, a 1.4 percent increase from the same month a year ago, and visitor arrivals reached 622,163, a 4.1 percent increase, according to the latest statistics released Tuesday by the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

Year-to-date, total visitor expenditures were up 2 percent to $11.07 billion compared to the same time period a year ago, while visitor arrivals reached 6,219,927, a 0.5 percent increase.

Per person per day spending remained flat at $201.80 in September, a 0.6 percent increase from September 2013. Year-to-date, per person per day spending reached $196, a 2.3 percent gain compared to the same time period in 2013.

Arrivals from the U.S. West Coast grew 6.9 percent to 230,512 visitors while arrivals from the East Coast rose 1.9 percent to 110,469 visitors. Total expenditures from the West Coast grew 7.1 percent to $339.3 million, but expenditures from East Coast dropped 3.3 percent to $234 million.

Arrivals from Japan grew 0.9 percent to 135,635 and visitor expenditures increased 2.4 percent to $217.3 million.

By island, Oahu and Maui reported increased visitor arrivals compared to last year, but Big Island, Lanai, Kauai and Molokai saw decreases.

Cruise ship arrivals in September 2014 rose 11.1 percent to 13,152 visitors.

Air capacity to the state was up 5.6 percent to 863,609 total air seats in September.

"By focusing on diversifying Hawaii's tourism profile through attracting new potential markets, the HTA has been able to increase year-to-date international arrivals by double digits from developing markets including New Zealand (+29.2% to 48,574 visitors), China (+27.4% to 128,792 visitors) and Korea (+17.8% to 145,622 visitors)," HTA President and CEO iMike McCartney said in a statement.

Jason Ubay covers tourism and finance for Pacific Business News.