The Hawaii Tourism Authority is a state funded agency which creates Hawaii's tourism policy and manages the marketing budget to bring in new visitors to the islands. Each year, the HTA sets forth a new goal of the number of visitors that that would like to attract to Hawaii and the amount that they hope to spend. In a recent announcement, the Hawaii Tourism Authority stated that they hope to bring in 8.7 million visitors to Hawaii in 2014 and have them spend over $16.1 billion. In order to reach these goals, additional resources are being spent in newer emerging markets, like China, South Korea, Taiwan and Latin America.
Specifically, the HTA hopes to see the number of Chinese visitors increase to 182,078 in 2014, which would represent at 25.6 percent increase from the predicted 2013 numbers. These Chinese visitors are estimated to spend $441.7 million in 2014, an increase of 23.3 percent from the what is expected in 2013 results. The number of Korean visitors are also expected to rise to 208,921 people, or an 8.9 percent increase from 2013. The Hawaii Tourism Authority hopes that they would spend 10.9 percent more in 2014 than in the year prior. The Hawaii Tourism Authority is still predicting very strong numbers from Japan, Canada and the mainland United States in 2014, but experts note that the growth from those markets will be relatively small.
Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 8-24-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, REALTOR®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
www.myhawaiihomesearch.com
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