The Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) has reported that a record 696,890 visitors spent $1.2bn for the month of November 2016, with Japanese visitors outspending all others at plus-13% to $187.5m.

 

This spend was more than double the $85.3m (+7.5%) contribution from Canadians in second place and clearly reflects a good contribution from Hawaiian Airlines’ established non-stop services between Tokyo Haneda and Honolulu – plus the more recently-established Tokyo Haneda-Hawaii’s Kona International Airport routing.

 

The HTA also notes that it is encouraged that the average number of days spent by all visitors to the islands which also grew by one additional day – compared to the same month in 2015.

 

As always, the sheer numbers of US nationals visiting the islands typically dominated November’s visitor spends by nationality, with arrivals from the US West region spending $457.3m (+5.1%); Japanese – as mentioned – $187.5m (+13%); Canadians $85.3m (+7.5%); and all other ‘international markets’ $236.4m (+11.4%).

 

MODEST CHINESE ARRIVALS STILL SPEND MOST PER DAY

Interestingly, visitors from the US East increased in terms of sheer numbers, but their lower daily spending translated into their total visitor spending falling by -4.5% to $246.3m compared with November 2015.

 

Meanwhile, the year-to-date January-November saw total visitor arrivals up +3% to 8.1m, with total visitor spending up +4.1% to $14bn. The HTA says these levels are currently ‘keeping Hawaii’s tourism industry on track’ and positioning it well to set new annual records in both categories.

 

The HTA also reports that year-to-date arrivals to Hawaii increased from the US West (+4.2%), US East (+3.3%), Japan (+0.9%) and all other international markets (+6.7%), although numbers declined from Canada (-7.5%).

 

 

In terms of the big dollar numbers, there were gains in visitor spending year-to-date from US West (+6% to $5bn), US East (+4.5% to $3.4bn), Japan (+1.9% to $1.9bn) and all other international markets (+6.9% to $2.8bn).

 

HAWAII WILL TRY TO ATTRACT MORE JAPANESE

There was nevertheless a big -10.6% decrease in spending to $831.8m by Canadian visitors, in line with the aforementioned fall in visitor numbers of this nationality

 

Minor highlights mentioned by the HTA also included the daily spend of $366 by the 159,701 (-1.4%) Chinese who visited the islands in the first 11 months, even though this fell by -6.8%.

 

This continues to be the highest spend per person/per day amongst all visitor nationalities of visitor to Hawaii.