Lower Visitor & Spending Numbers For '09

Aloha Kakou:

With Maui County tourism down almost 9% in 2009 compared to 2008, December's decline of 1.5% continued last year's downward momentum.

The state as a whole, however, is seeing modest increases in tourists coming from states in the US West. This could be positive news for Maui as most of our tourists are from those states.

Steep discounting and lower visitor spending decreased annual revenues by 13.6%, with December down only 4.3%, meaning perhaps that tourists are still willing to pay more to book those Christmas vacations.

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