This past August marks another strong month for the State of Hawaii. Important areas of interest continued to rise including visitor spending, arrivals, weddings and meetings and conventions. August also offered the eighth month of consecutive growth for the state.
Total expenditures by visitors to Hawaii grew by nearly 15% as compared to this time last year, offering an additional $151.4 million dollars to the state’s economy. Hawaii has also seen a 20% increase in spending as compared to 2011 during the first eight months. The US East, US West, Japan and Canadian markets all contributed a large portion of the increase.
Arrivals increased throughout the state by 11% as compared to August, 2011. The major contributing markets were the US West (up 7.6%) and US East (up 9.6%) The Japanese market offered a healthy 12.8% increase. The Canadian market dropped off slightly showing a 0.6% decrease compared to last year. The first eight months of 2012 showed an overall increase of arrivals by 10%.
Visitors traveling to the state looking to tie the knot grew by nearly 11%. The US East market dropped off considerably, showing a decline of 10% however the US West market increased their volume by just over 20%. The Japanese market grew by just over 3%.
This August marked the fourth month of continued growth for both convention visitors as well as corporate meetings. Each increased by 10.8% and 26.8% respectively. The US West market contributed quite a bit to the increased convention business, showing a growth of 37.7% for the month. The US East and West markets drove a majority portion of the corporate meeting business, offering a 10.7% and 21.5% respective growth. Incentive trips showed a slight decline of 4.1%.
Hotel and timeshare visitors grew as well, showing an increase of 13.5% and 10.3% respectively. August marked the sixth straight month of growth for the hotel industry offering double-digit increases. Condominium visitors fell off slightly by 0.7%.
As 2012 continues, the positive trend for the tourism industry in Hawaii continues to show great momentum moving into what is typically a slower time of the year for the state. Though this trend might slow down, hopefully the numbers continue to rise offering a solid foundation for the rest of the year.
