For Immediate Release: May 29, 2004
DBEDT Release News 04-17

Note: April 2004 Visitor Research Data can be viewed here.

HONOLULU--Steady growth in domestic visitors and a surge in visitors from Japan contributed to a 14.4 percent increase in total visitor arrivals in April 2004, compared to the same month last year, according to data released by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) today.

Domestic arrivals by air reached 405,833 visitors for the month and represented the best April on record. Japanese arrivals, which comprised the majority (73%) of international visitors, jumped 55.4 percent.

"We are very happy to see continued growth in tourism and its effect on Hawaii's economy," said State Tourism Liaison, Marsha Wienert. "For the first four months of this year, more than 4,000 jobs have been added statewide in tourism related industries such as retail trade, accommodations, and food and beverage services. Our general excise tax collection also rose 10.8 percent, while transient accommodation tax collection increased 14.7 percent."

"Additionally, we are very pleased to see the growth in our wedding market. Hawaii welcomed nearly 88,000 brides and grooms to the state during the first four months of 2004. That represents a 26.4 percent increase over the same period last year."

Total visitor days numbered 4.8 million in April 2004, while the average length of stay by these visitors was 8.68 days.

• Total air visitors: A total of 2,183,906 visitors came to Hawaii during the first four months of 2004, up 7.1 percent from the same period last year. Total visitor days numbered 20.4 million while the average length of stay was 9.34 days.
• Domestic air visitors: Domestic arrivals increased 8.3 percent to 1,540,536 visitors. The average length of stay was 9.97 days. Arrivals from the U.S. market, which comprised 91.6 percent of all domestic visitors were 8.2 percent higher compared to year-to-date 2003.
• International air visitors: International arrivals totaled 643,370 visitors, up 4.5 percent from the same period last year. Those who came during the first four months of 2004 stayed an average of 7.83 days.
• Total repeat/first-time visitors: Repeat visitors accounted for 63.0 percent of the total visitors to Hawaii compared to 63.5 percent in the same period last year.
• Arrivals by Island: Fewer visitors went to multiple islands in the first four months of 2004. Single-island visitation increased on Oahu, Kauai, Molokai, Maui and the Big Island.

• Purpose of trip: More visitors came for meetings, conventions and incentives (+3.8%), to visit friends or relatives (+14.2%), for other business (+14.5%) and to attend sports events (+6.9%) compared to year-to-date 2003.
• Air visitors from the top four major market areas (MMAs):

  U.S. West: Arrivals from the U.S. West rose 7.2 percent to 818,471 visitors. A higher number of these visitors came to honeymoon, get married, visit friends or relatives and for vacation compared to the same period last year.

U.S. East: A total of 620,649 U.S. East visitors came to the islands, up 8.4 percent compared to year-to-date 2003. Similar to their U.S. West counterpart, more U.S. East visitors came to honeymoon, vacation and visit friends or relatives.

Japan: Hawaii welcomed a total of 445,804 Japanese visitors during the first four months of 2004, an increase of 7.9 percent from the same period last year. More Japanese visitors came to vacation, for meetings and incentives, and to visit friends and relatives compared to year-to-date 2003. Repeat visitors comprised 53.0 percent of the total, up from 52.8 percent for the same period last year.

Canada: A total of 103,246 Canadian visitors came to the islands, 5.0 percent lower compared to year-to-date 2003.

• Cruise visitors: There was a total of 28 cruise ship arrivals year-to-date, carrying 73,718 out-of-state visitors, including those who arrived by air to board these ships and those who came with the ships.

  Repeat visitors to the islands comprised 59.2 percent of the out-of-state cruise visitors during year-to-date 2004, compared to 58.8 percent in the same period last year. These cruise visitors stayed an average of 7.3 days in Hawaii, of which 4.60 days were spent on their cruise and another 2.70 days were spent before and after their cruise.

Preliminary April 2004 visitor expenditures data:

• Total visitor expenditures: Total expenditures by visitors who came by air in April 2004 were $748.7 million. Total spending by U.S. West visitors was the highest at $292.3 million, followed by visitors from the U.S. East at $195.6 million, Japan at $157.8 million and Canada at $19.7 million.

  By island, visitor spending on Oahu totaled $362.3 million. Spending by visitors on Maui was second at $207.1 million, followed by visitor spending on Kauai ($88.9 million), the Big Island ($83.3 million), Lanai ($4.6 million) and Molokai ($2.5 million).

  Year-to-date, air visitors spent a total of $3.2 billion while in Hawaii. U.S. West visitors spent $1.1 billion, followed by visitors from the U.S. East ($1.0 billion), Japan ($655.1 million) and Canada ($181.7 million). Visitors from All Other MMAs spent $323.9 million so far this year.

  For the first four months of 2004, visitor spending on Oahu totaled $1.5 billion. Visitor spending on Maui was $953.3 million, followed by the Big Island at $366.7 million, Kauai at $349.5 million, Lanai at $21.4 million and Molokai at $9.0 million.

• Per person per day expenditures: Japanese visitors continued to spend the most on a daily basis at $258 per person in April 2004, followed by those from the U.S. East ($155 per person), from All Other markets ($150 per person), from the U.S. West ($134 per person) and from Canada ($131 per person).

  The average daily spending by Japanese visitors was $253 per person during the first four months of 2004. Daily spending by visitors from the U.S. East ($156 per person) was the next highest, followed by visitors from All Other markets ($155 per person), from the U.S. West ($138 per person) and from Canada ($125 per person).

• Per person per trip expenditures: Visitors from Canada spent the most per trip at $1,622 per person in April 2004, followed by those from All Other markets at $1,591 per person, from Japan at $1,507 per person, from the U.S. East at $1,442 per person and from the U.S. West at $1,199 per person.

  Year-to-date Canadian visitors spent $1,760 per person per trip, followed by visitors from All Other markets ($1,655 per person), from the U.S. East ($1,623 per person), Japan ($1,469 per person) and the U.S. West ($1,316 per person).

Technical Note: Due to an error in passenger count reported by the airlines, visitor statistics for the first three months of 2004 have been revised. Statistics in this month's press release reflected the changes both for April 2004 and year-to-date.

In an effort to improve the accuracy and timeliness of its visitor research data, DBEDT has implemented a new methodology for processing information. Monthly data on visitor expenditures are now released in the same month as DBEDT's basic series figures and are available statewide and by island. In addition, DBEDT is revising the "average length of stay" calculations for 2003 to reflect usage of the new in-flight survey form. The survey, developed to collect data from visitors arriving on domestic flights, now uses Teleform, an image scanning software with handwriting recognition ability. The new survey format allows visitors to report their exact length of stay, instead of the range of days recorded by the old fill-in bubble format. While DBEDT is in the process of revising the previous year's data, we will not present monthly comparisons of 2004 length of stay, visitor days, average daily census and visitor expenditures statistics with results from the previous year.

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