LIHUE — The Hawaii Tourism Authority announced the publishing of the 2017 Annual Visitor Research Report, the most comprehensive collection of research and analysis about the performance, characteristics and visitor profiles of Hawaii’s tourism industry in 2017.
The 188-page report provides businesses and stakeholders involved in tourism with a better understanding about Hawaii’s leading industry, and keeps them informed when developing new products, creating marketing strategies and staying competitive.
Highlights of the report includes profiles and detailed spending habits of visitors to the Hawaiian Islands from nine major market areas, including U.S. West, U.S. East, Japan, Canada, Europe, Oceania, Other Asia, Latin America and other markets.
The report features information not provided in HTA’s monthly visitor statistics, such as visitor characteristics by purpose of trip, by accommodation choice, and by first-time or repeat-visitor status. Visitor spending by categories by island are also reported.
Other data provided in the report includes air-seat capacity of nonstop, trans-Pacific flights to Hawaii, visitor room inventory, hotel occupancy and room rates, and a profile of cruise visitors and their spending characteristics.
The report also finalized the visitor statistics totals for Hawaii, both statewide and by island in 2017. Spending by visitors in Hawaii, including supplemental business expenditures, totaled $16.81 billion in 2017, an increase of 5.6 percent compared to 2016. All of the Hawaiian Islands realized increases in total visitor spending in 2017 versus the year before.
When adjusted for inflation, visitor spending in Hawaii totaled $14.39 billion in 2017, an increase of 3.5 percent over 2016.
A total of 9,404,346 visitors came to the Hawaiian Islands via trans-Pacific flights or by cruise ships in 2017, an increase of 5.3 percent compared to 2016.
The 2017 Annual Visitor Research Report and accompanying data tables are posted at bit.ly/2Dhm84Y