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Hawaii tourist H1 arrivals up, spending declines again
Visitor arrivals to Hawaii grew in the first half of 2019, but visitor spending again declined by about 3% state-wide.
Total visitors numbers increased by about 4% to 5,191,523, putting it on track to surpass 10 million by the end of the year.
Last year it was just short of the milestone figure with 9.9 million.
Jennifer Chun, Hawaii Tourism Authority’s director of tourism research says the increased numbers directly correlate to a rise in seat capacity.
"More people are going to be coming to Oahu because there are more seats available. If you look at the long-term growth, you see more visitors coming as air seats are increasing," Chin said, referring to the 5% increase in visitor arrivals to Oahu.
Hawaii Tourism Authority data found visitors spent only about $196 per day on average across the state, which is about 3% less than last year.
That amounts to about $8.8 billion in H1 2019.
It found spending declines from the East Coast as well as most international markets.
Cruise ship traffic also increased.
The HTA attributes the decline in spending to less being spent on lodging despite the average daily room rate holding firm.
At $226, Hawaii recorded the highest average RevPAR in the US and is among the top 10 most expensive markets worldwide for tropical vacation destinations.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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