Dec. 29–It's taken four years of modest growth, but Hawaii's tourism industry is about to cross the latest million mark.
With just three days left in the year for visitors to step off planes, it's expected that about 9.3 million tourists — a record — will have come to the state this year.
The new projected milestone is based on preliminary November visitor arrival statistics the Hawaii Tourism Authority released Thursday.
Last year 8.9 million tourists visited Hawaii. The previous million mark, from 7 million to 8 million, was crossed in 2013, and since then annual visitor arrivals have risen between 2.4 and about 5 percent.
"Definitely, this year will be a record with over 9 million visitors," said Eugene Tian, chief economist with the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
The number of visitors who came in November surged 7.3 percent to 748,303 from 697,109 in the same month last year, and that put the total for the first 11 months of this year at 8.5 million.
Historically, December and July are the peak months for travel to Hawaii, and about 800,000 visitors flocked here in the last month of 2016 and 2015.
George Szigeti, HTA president and CEO, called November's results excellent and said continued gains are expected.
"We are in the closing days of what has been an extraordinary year for Hawaii's tourism industry, and continued success is promising as we begin a new year," he said in a statement.
Tian said this year turned out to be much better than what DBEDT forecast in February.
In that forecast the agency expected arrivals would grow 1.5 percent because it looked like airlines were cutting back on service, with 0.5 percent fewer seats expected to serve the market.
Instead, airlines increased service amid what Tian said was higher traveler demand. New routes included a couple from Tokyo to Kona, and the seat capacity gain this year through November was 1.4 percent. HTA said air seat capacity in November alone rose 5 percent, which was more than any other month this year.
Szigeti noted that four airlines — Virgin America, Scoot, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines — either launched new routes or significantly expanded existing service to Hawaii within the last two weeks. He added that in the next few months Hawaiian Airlines is set to start daily service on four mainland-neighbor island routes.
All this growth is good for the state economy, as tourism is Hawaii's biggest industry and a dominant supplier of jobs, business income and tax revenue.
State tax revenue from tourism rose by $109.5 million to $1.77 billion this year through November compared with the same period last year, Szigeti said.
In November tourists statewide spent $1.29 billion, according to HTA's report. That was up by 4.5 percent, or about $60 million, from $1.23 billion in the same month last year. This year through November, spending has totaled $15.1 billion, up 6.6 percent from $14.2 billion in the same period last year.
Tourist spending last month was driven by the higher visitor arrivals, while the average tourist spent slightly less per day and stayed for a slightly shorter period.
The average visitor spent 8.6 days here during November, which was down from 8.67 days in the same month last year. The average visitor spent $200 per day, down 1.8 percent from $204 in the same period a year ago.
Visitor arrivals up 7.3 percent in November far offset those small decreases.
Hawaii's biggest source of tourists, the U.S. West, produced a 9.1 percent gain to 322,195 arrivals. The count for U.S. East visitors rose 4 percent to 132,683. Visitors from Japan edged up 0.2 percent to 130,168. Visitors from Canada surged 18.4 percent to 51,785, and visitors flying here from the rest of the world rose 11.9 percent to 101,688. Cruise passengers dipped 1.2 percent to 9,784.
DBEDT expects tourism growth in 2018 will continue but at a slower pace — 2.3 percent for arrivals — to produce a ninth continuous year of expansion and yet another record at almost 9.6 million visitors.
