"This is by far the worst summer we've seen," said Joseph Toy, President and CEO of Hospitality Advisors LLC, which produced the data.

It's the perfect combination to bring about imperfect results. The country is all at once in a credit crisis, a financial roller coaster, real estate trouble and facing rising unemployment. You know it's bad when gas prices are starting to look good. So when asked if we’re in a recession…

"From a tourism standpoint we certainly are and I think that's been clear since April," Toy responded.

There's no escaping that the visitor sector is in a recession," said Carl Bonham, University of Hawaii at Manoa Economics Professor.

Overall if hotel occupancy is down it means fewer tourist tax dollars coming in and less visitor spending.

Today Professor Bonham had his second meeting in two weeks at the state capitol to advise lawmakers what to prepare for.

"We're going to see continued job losses in the accommodation sector and the food and retail sector and it's spilling over to the rest of the economy and there's really no way to avoid that," said Professor Bonham.

"We're probably going to be seeing a rough patch probably through mid 2010 is my guess," said Toy.

That's a year and a half from now which is why he thinks hotels will cut employees and start downsizing.

"We are seeing hotels closing off wings of hotels and alternating floors for example and when you walk through Waikiki there are definitely a lot of dark rooms there," said Toy.

Hotel managers say they need to work harder at giving people a reason to come back to Hawaii and it's going to take more than just nice scenery.

The Hospitality Advisors LLC, which put out the report, says Big Island hotels have been hit the hardest with occupancy levels down near 50 percent.

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