For Immediate Release: December 29, 2004
DBEDT Release News 04-02

Note: December 2003 Visitor Research Data can be viewed here.

Honolulu—For calendar year 2003, total visitor days increased 3.0 percent to a record high 61.9 million and domestic visitor days reached a milestone, surpassing all other years to be the highest on record at 48.7 million, according to data released by DBEDT today.

Domestic visitor days rose 8.8 percent in December, compared to the same month in 2002, to finish the year as the best December on record.

"This record-breaking performance from the domestic market continues to be very impressive," said Tourism Liaison Marsha Wienert. "Along with their longer length of stay, the visitors from the U.S. West were clearly the backbone of our industry and all indicators show that domestic travel will continue this year at record levels."

In addition to being the state's largest market, the U.S. West continued to experience steady growth in visitor arrivals by air, increasing 2.7 percent in December 2003 and 2.3 percent for the year.

International visitor days were down 8.0 percent and arrivals dropped 6.8 percent in December.

• Total Visitors: The exceptional performance in domestic visitor days contributed to the record high total of 61.9 million. In 2003, the islands hosted a total of 6,345,209 visitors, slightly down by 0.7 percent from 2002. However the average length of stay by these visitors was longer at 9.75 days compared to 9.40 days in the previous year.
• Domestic Air Visitors: Domestic visitor days surpassed last year's record by 6.3 percent to 48.7 million. Domestic arrivals by air rose 3.2 percent to 4,498,655 visitors while the average length of stay increased to 10.82 days. Arrivals from the U.S. market, which accounted for 91.2 percent of all domestic visitors, rose 3.4 percent with growth from all U.S. regions. Domestic arrivals were slightly lower on Oahu but increased on the neighbor islands.
• International Air Visitors: International visitor days were off by 7.6 percent compared to 2002 due to a 9.0 percent decrease in visitor arrivals. A total of 1,846,554 international visitors came to the islands in 2003. Their average length of stay was 7.15 days (+1.6%).
• Total Repeat/First Time Visitors: Repeat visitors accounted for 62.0 percent of the total visitors to Hawaii while 38.0 percent were first timers, relatively unchanged from 2002. The large number of returning visitors to the state contributed to a 7.9 percent growth in neighbor-island-only visitations.
• Arrivals by Island: Total arrivals by air rose on Maui (+3.3%), Molokai (+19.5%) and Lanai (+10.6%) but decreased on Oahu (-4.9%), Kauai (-3.3%) and the Big Island (-2.8%) compared to the previous year

• Purpose of trip: The number of visitors who came to vacation in Hawaii increased 1.2 percent. More visitors also came for meetings, conventions and incentives (+11.9%) and to visit friends or relatives (+5.9%) than in 2002.

• Air Visitors from the Top Four Major Market Areas (MMAs):

  U.S. West: Growth in visitor arrivals and a longer average length of stay contributed to a 5.2 percent increase in U.S. West visitor days in 2003 compared to the previous year.

  U.S. East: U.S. East visitor days (+8.5%) also surpassed 2002 levels due to increased arrivals and length of stay.

  Japan: Arrivals from Japan accounted for 71.7 percent of all international visitors and 20.9 percent of the total visitors to the state. The number of Japanese visitors who came to Hawaii for conventions, corporate meetings and incentives jumped 33.9 percent compared to 2002.

  Canada: Visitor days for Canada increased 14.7 percent due to growth in arrivals and a longer average length of stay.

• Cruise Visitors:

  There were a total of 69 cruise ship arrivals in 2003 carrying 230,495 out-of-state visitors, including those who arrived by air to board these ships and those who came with the ships. The number of visitors was 4.5 percent lower compared to 2002 with 63 cruise ship arrivals.

  Nearly 42 percent of the out-of-state cruise visitors were first time visitors to the islands, compared to 40.3 percent last year. These cruise visitors stayed an average of 7.27 days in Hawaii, of which 4.52 days were spent on their cruise and another 2.75 days were spent before and after their cruise.

Highlights from Preliminary Year-to-date November 2003 Visitor Expenditures

• Total visitor expenditures: Total expenditures by visitors who arrived by air during the first eleven months of 2003 was $9.2 billion, 4.7 percent higher than the same period last year.

  Total spending by U.S. West visitors rose 11.2 percent to $3.6 billion year-to-date. Total expenditures by U.S. East and Canadian visitors also increased to $2.7 billion (+6.8%) and $292.9 million (+17.0%), respectively. Total spending by Japanese visitors declined to $1.7 billion (-10.4%).

• Per person per day expenditures: Japanese visitors continued to spend the most on a daily basis at $241 per person year-to-date, followed by those from the U.S. East ($163 per person), from All Other major market areas ($159 per person), from the U.S. West ($148 per person) and from Canada ($122 per person).
• Per person per trip expenditures: U.S. East visitors spent the most per trip year-to-date at $1,817 per person, followed by those from Canada at $1,631 per person, All Other major market areas at $1,614 per person and from the U.S. West at $1,529 per person. Although Japanese visitors spent the most on a daily basis, their average per trip spending of $1,411 was the lowest among all visitor groups due to their shorter average length of stay.

Note: Total visitor expenditure presented here measures air visitor spending on a statewide basis. Whereas the neighbor island visitor expenditures presented in an earlier press release represents island-specific spending by visitors on Maui, Molokai, Kauai and the Big Island.

For more information, contact:
Marsha Wienert, Tourism Liaison
Phone: (808) 586-2362
Email: marsha.wienert@hawaii.gov

Dave Young
Communications
Phone: (808) 587-1212
Email: dyoung@dbedt.hawaii.gov

Russell Pang
Chief of Media Relations, Office of the Governor
Phone: (808) 586-0043
Email: russell.pang@hawaii.gov