Kaua‘i visitor spending increases outpace O‘ahu, Maui

LIHU‘E — Hawai‘i Tourism Authority’s most recent tourism report released Nov. 4  and covering the month of September revealed a continuation of positive growth in visitor traffic and spending for Kaua‘i and neighboring islands.

“We are very pleased to see that September 2010 DBEDT (Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism) statistics were strong for Kaua‘i, especially when September can be more of a shoulder period, following Labor Day,” said Kaua‘i Visitors Bureau Executive Director Sue Kanoho. “It was a reassuring message that our Kaua‘i-only numbers are up.”

Visitors for the month totaled 36,735, up 11 percent over 2009. Visitors traveling to Kaua‘i only from Japan increased 62 percent since last year, and from Canada increased 52 percent.

Compared to August, total visitor arrivals to Kaua‘i increased 3 percent, length of stay increased 9 percent and expenditures increased 35 percent to $91.5 million.

Local expenditures significantly outpaced Maui’s 25 percent, O‘ahu’s 19 percent and Hawai‘i’s 18 percent.

“…[It] is very encouraging that we are not only stabilizing our visitor industry,” Kanoho said, “but starting to make headway in growth. I think that the Kaua‘i Marathon and the Matsuri Kaua‘i Festival both had a great deal to do with our international numbers performing so well.”

Year to date, island arrivals have increased 3 percent, expenditures have increased 11 percent and length of stay has increased 1 percent.

The report said statewide Canadian visitor levels showed a strong 13 percent increase over the same month last year. Year to date, Canadians’ spending has increased 14 percent to $502 million due to a 12 percent increase in visitor arrivals. Kaua‘i arrivals increased 20 percent.

“Having just returned from our Canadian Blitz, I was excited to see the increases still moving in the double digits for Kaua‘i and the Canada market,” Kanoho said. “The response for Kaua‘i in Calgary was very promising, and we found more people knew of Kaua‘i and were interested in exploring other islands besides just O‘ahu and Maui, and were happy to see us promoting Kaua‘i as they were just looking at their Christmas travels.” 

At the end of October, Smith Travel reported weekly average room rates across the state have increased a half a percent, while Kaua‘i rates have decreased 3 percent to $183. Island occupancy was reported to be 64 percent for the week, a 4 percent increase over last year, and statewide occupancies were also up 4 percent. 

Although visitor arrivals from the west increased 6 percent and from Canada 7 percent compared to the previous month, total year to date numbers show a slight decrease in western and Japanese visitors

Statewide, total air seats for September grew 11 percent compared to the same month last year, and Lihu‘e totaled 10 percent.

While many airlines announced plans last month to raise ticket prices and shrink capacity, Hawaiian Airlines corporate communications representative Keoni Wagner said their capacity was up 2 percent compared to last year and there are no immediate plans to raise prices, although by law she is not allowed to discuss fares.

“The marketplace sets the fares and airlines may want to increase fares to cover the cost of operation,” Wagner said, “but at the end of the day, it’s whatever the market will bear.”

Hawaiian’s year-to-date load factor, which is similar to a hotel’s occupancy data, has experienced an increase of 2 percent.

“Hawaiian does not have any plans to reduce capacity in the coming year,” Wagner said. “No, in fact, Hawaiian is one of the few airlines that is growing, and we attribute it to a long-term growth plan and 10 consecutive quarters of profitability.” 

New destinations to Asia and Tokyo will be added in less that month, she said, and direct from Honolulu to South Korea will be added; however, she’s not aware of any changes for Kaua‘i.

Editor’s note: In most instances, fractional figures were rounded to the nearest whole number for the sake of readability.