According to a report released by the Hawaii Tourism Authority, the state of Hawaii is on track in 2014 to beat records that they set in 2013. For the month of July, visitor spending was up 2.6 percent to $1.35 billion and arrivals were up 2.5 percent to 772,106. Mike McCartney, the president and CEO for HTA, commented, "Honolulu is ranked as the fourth busiest international port of entry for the U.S. We have 975 flights per week connecting 48 cities worldwide by 21 carriers. Our focus will be to ensure there is sufficient demand to sustain this increase in seats from our core U.S. market."
Keith Vieira, the principal of KV & Associates, Hospitality Consulting, commented, "Overall, the visitor industry performance is really positive for the state. Pockets like Kona and Kauai may still have a tough time because they rely more on the group market and it's not as strong as it needs to be. However, in general, we'll see positive growth in 2014, just not as strong as we saw in 2013 or 2012."
Kelly Sanders, the area managing director of Waikiki for Starwood Hotels and Resorts, added, "We started to see a slow recovery in April, which along with May and June had a decline. Summer has rebounded to be better than last year, but we are concerned about fall. As we move into October and November, pace numbers and advance bookings are softer this year than they have been in the past," he said. "On the Japan side, we think it's mainly due to a less favorable exchange rate and a higher consumption tax. Also, the Korean market is down because we mainly depend on the honeymoon market and this year, due to the lunar cycle, is considered an unfavorable time to get married."
Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 8-28-2014, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Principal Broker, REALTOR®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
www.myhawaiihomesearch.com
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