US (HAWAII). Visitor arrivals fell by -12.5% in January to 522,241, according to preliminary statistics released by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT). And within that, the all-important Japanese sector posted a further decline, this time by -12.7% compared with January 2008.
Overall, expenditures by visitors who came by air in January 2009 decreased -13.6% year-on-year or US$149.7 million to US$949.8 million. That was driven by the fall in arrivals allied to lower average daily visitor spending (US$172 per person, from US$178 per person in January 2008).
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Total visitor days for air and cruise visitors in January 2009 fell -10.4% from the same month last year. However the average length of stay by these visitors was slightly longer at 10.79 days, compared to 10.54 days in January 2008.
Among the top four visitor markets, air arrivals from the US West decreased by -14.3% while US East arrivals were -14.9% less compared to January 2008. As mentioned, Japanese arrivals declined -12.7% while arrivals by air from Canada were -4.7% down.
“While these overall numbers were not unexpected, an unexpected bright spot in the January 2009 statistics was a +49.2% growth in Japanese honeymooners to the islands,” said State Tourism Liaison Marsha Wienert.
“This is a very challenging time for everyone, because tourism is the backbone of our economy and when tourism falters it affects everyone in our state,” said Wienert.
THE JAPANESE RESULT IN DETAIL
* Japanese group tours were down by -25.3% in January.
* Although Japanese visitor arrivals (-12.7%) and visitor days (-11%) declined by double digits, the decline in total visitor spending by this group was smaller (-3.6% to US$160.6 million) compared to the other markets due to higher daily spending (up from US$284 per person per day to US$309 per person per day in January 2009).
* There were more first-time visitors from Japan in January 2009 compared to the same month last year (42.4% versus 38.9%). Japanese visitors’ length of stay was 5.88 days, compared to 5.77 days in January 2008.
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MORE STORIES ON HAWAIIAN TOURISM
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