Isle tourism jumps 4.8%

September was a good month
but arrivals are still down
year-to-date

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Tourist numbers were up for September but for the first nine months of 1997 they're still lagging behind last year, the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau said today.

The HVCB also said that the number of first-time visitors, which has been down all year, was down again in September compared to previous years. That means Hawaii is not adequately reaching new markets and not setting a pattern for growth, said Tony Vericella, HVCB president and chief executive officer.

Hawaii has yet to get back to the positive tourist numbers of the peak year 1990. For the first nine months of 1997, arrivals are down 0.4 percent compared with the same period last year.

But for September alone, the overall figures showed a strong gain over September 1996.

The state had 553,730 visitors staying overnight or longer last month, an increase of 4.8 percent from the total of 528,160 for September 1996, the HVCB said. The westbound total, made up of tourists from North America and Europe, was up 3.9 percent at 297,230, compared with 286,050 in September 1996. Eastbound arrivals, from Japan and other parts of Asia and the Pacific were up 5.9 percent at 256,500, from 242,110 in the year-earlier month.

There was a slight decline in the length of stay by westbound visitors, to an average of 7.65 days compared with 7.73 days in September 1996. However, the increase in the number of people from all sources brought total visitor days (the number of visitors multiplied by the number of days in Hawaii) up 3.8 percent to 4.24 million, from 4.08 million in September 1996.

Eastbound tourists stayed an average of 5.53 days last month, up slightly from 5.51 days in the year-earlier period. The average number of tourists in Hawaii on an average day, an important indicator of visitor spending, was 141,200 last month, up 3.8 percent from 136,010 in September 1996.

Strong numbers from the Asia

Pacific area seem to show that the Japanese, who are becoming more price conscious, have learned to dodge the high-priced peak periods, said Roberta Rinker-Ludloff, HVCB vice president for marketing.

Many of them apparently opted to avoid August, the peak summer month when air fares and hotel rates are high, and come in September when prices were lower, she said. "We're also seeing the results of the $6 million marketing campaign we launched in Japan during the second and third quarters."

Vericella said Hawaii has to push to attract new visitors. "All in all, we're pleased with the results in September, but the figures show that first-time visitors continued their year-long decline, dropping another 2.5 percent for the month," he said."It's obvious that we need to have specific marketing plans for this crucial segment to stop this downward trend and ensure future growth of our tourism industry."