July Visitor Statistics

Aloha Kakou:

Two stories today, one in each of the Honolulu papers, talk about the continuing downturn in Hawaii's tourism business. Compared to last July, the number of visitors to the state was down this July by about 14% and the number of visitors to Maui was down 22%.

In conjunction with lower visitor counts, total visitor expenditures are also down. In the case of Maui, visitors spent 27% less this July than they did in July of 2007. A silver lining to these storm clouds may be that, as visitors are looking to get more value for their dollar, our condominiums may look more attractive to guests who wish to save a little money on their trip by preparing some meals themselves. Our decrease in occupancy may have been blunted somewhat by those value-seeking guests.

The state of Hawaii is looking to possibly spend an additional $10 million in advertising to help to attract visitors.

One of the bright spots is, with their now strong dollar, visits to Hawaii by Canadians are increasing.

Additionally, Hawaii's governor and lieutenant governor are planning marketing trips to Asia this fall in an attempt to lay some groundwork for those visitors.

Here are the links to the newspaper articles:

http://starbulletin.com/2008/08/27/news/story01.html

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080827/NEWS01/808270409/1001