Aug
15
The fine print in the tourism report
Filed Under Sunrise on KGMB9
The wrap-up report on June tourism shows that Mister Slump has fully arrived, wearing Bermuda shorts and Ray-Bans.
The tourism boom began making “out of gas” noises in May 2007 when increases in hotel room rates stopped making up for declines in rooms sold.
Up to then the slowing of arrivals “didn’t matter” because revenues were still strong and there were fewer rooms to make up.
Over the following 12 months, visitor arrivals turned down more, and by May 2008 the decline was in double digit percentages.
Now comes the June report from DBEDT, the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, showing visitor arrivals down a sixth and spending down by well over $150 million, making the first June in years NOT to be a billion-dollar month.
California arrivals were down 20%. Japanese arrivals were only down 10%. The overall domestic decline was 17% for both U.S. West and U.S. East.
I had to struggle to find bright spots but here are a few interesting ones:
- Arrivals are UP from Seattle and Portland. We have very strong air connections from these cities, and there may be untapped potential in communities within driving distance of SeaTac.
- Canadian traffic is up substantially and Canadians are spending more because their currency is closer than usual to parity with our dollar. Canadians are not big spenders, though, and limo drivers hate them because they like TheBus, treating it almost like its own tourist attraction.
- Maui, which has the largest visitor decline in percentage terms, was almost flat on visitor spending, suggesting that the visitors it’s getting are sufficiently affluent to pay those pricey room rates. But with layoffs at two West Maui resorts I wonder if this trend has been holding up this month.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority is under pressure to “do something!” It will be interesting to see what creative ideas it may think up.
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