The Hawaii Tourism Authority released Monthly Visitor Statistics for July 2012 today. This year the Hawaii visitor industry has moved into a strong expansionary phase and July proved to be no exception. In general, all major market areas saw positive growth and growth was spread across all four counties during the month of July.
Total visitor arrivals to the state were 635,000* in July, an increase of 8.7% from the previous year. Total arrivals have posted positive year-on-year growth in 31 of the past 32 months. All counties enjoyed increased arrivals; Oahu experienced the strongest growth of 11.4% while Maui County saw the most limited arrivals growth of only 4.5%.
In July, Japan proved to be the fastest growing major market area with statewide arrivals growth of 21.5%. Japanese arrivals are up 18.2% year-to-date following a strong recovery after the 2011 Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami. Arrivals from international markets other than Japan also saw robust growth of 17.5% in July. Non-Japanese international arrivals have been growing faster than either US or Japanese arrivals over recent years; as a result they have begun to make up a larger and larger portion of overall arrivals. In July they accounted for almost 20% of total arrivals, look for their share to grow going forward. Arrivals from the US mainland saw only fair growth of 2.7%. US visitor growth has lagged behind other major market areas so far this year; while total arrivals are up 9.7% year-to-date, US arrivals have only increased by 4.8%.
While the number of visitor arrivals saw healthy growth in July, the average visit was marginally shorter. Average length of stay was 1.2% shorter than the same month a year ago, as a result total visitor days increased by only 7.2%. Visits from US mainland were on average, 10 days long. The average Japanese visit, typically much shorter than US visits, was 5.9 days. Non-Japanese international visitors had the longest length of stay at 10.2 days.
Nominal visitor expenditures posted extremely robust growth of 19.8% in the month of July. Not only are more visitors coming to the state, but the average visitor is spending 10.4% more per day and 9.2% more per trip overall. The average Japanese visitor, despite spending less than 6 days in the state, managed to spend almost $1875 per trip in July, amounting to close to $320 per day. US visitors were the most frugal group, spending close to $1700 per trip or $170 per day. Non-Japanese international visitors spent more than US mainlanders but less than Japanese visitors on a per-day day basis. However with their long length of stay they managed to spend almost $2200 per trip, the most of any group.
Overall, the Hawaii visitor industry has experienced strong growth over the first half of the year; visitor indicators increased across the board and the Accommodations & Food Service industry added almost to 2,500 jobs. July seems to have set a strong tone for the second half of the year. That being said, we’ll have to watch closely to see if the visitor industry is able to maintain this breakneck pace through the end of the year, or if global economic woes will weigh on potential visitors in the second half of 2012.
– Jimmy Jones
*Unless otherwise indicated, all figures are seasonally adjusted by UHERO and percent changes indicate percent change from the same period a year ago.