Hawaii Tourism is starting to return it would seem. According to the Hawaii Tourism Authority's preliminary statistics for October, total expenditures by visitors who came to Hawaii during the month jumped 24.7% when compared with October 2009. In total, travelers to Hawaii spent $961.5 million in October, or $190.6 million more than they did during same month last year. October numbers were up all round continuing a trend that has been building for a while. Average daily spending by visitors statewide increased nearly 10%, to $188.70, and total tourists to Hawaii were up 13.6%. Among the destination's top four markets, arrivals inbound from the U.S. West rose 21.4%, while those from the U.S. East increased 6.1% year over year. Visitors from Canada surged 17.2%, and even arrivals from Japan inched up 1.6%.
HOWEVER be careful in reading this as the be all and end all of the situation. Remember that capacity remains constrained. The US Carriers are not that keen on adding capacity for which their yields are poor. Mexico's woes started to kick in with a vengeance in October and therefore a lot of people diverted from Mexico to Hawaii. Continuing a trend that I have seen for decades.
That said Hawaii's #2 long haul carrier in terms of flights is soon to be Alaska Airlines. Yup the plucky guy from the Northwest is expanding his footprint and bringing the Proud Alaskan with the Lei tail to the islands big time.
New routes consist of the following
San Diego (SAN) - Kahului, Maui (OGG) 10/01/10 1x Daily
Portland (PDX) - Kona, Hawaii (KOA) 11/12/10 - 04/09/11 Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat
Seattle (SEA) - Kona, Hawaii (KOA) 11/11/10 - 04/07/11 Increase to 2x daily Tue, Thu, Sun
Bellingham (BLI) - Honolulu (HNL) 01/07/11 1x Daily
Oakland (OAK) - Lihue, Kauai (LIH) 03/28/11 Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat
San Jose (SJC) - Lihue, Kauai (LIH) 03/27/11 Tue, Thu, Sun
This gives the islands:
Kona 4 routes
OGG 5 7 routes
HNL 4 routes
LIH 4 Routes
2 Years ago these did not exist.
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