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Hawaii Sets Tourism Records Aided by Airline Competition

Will you be visiting Hawaii in the New Year? Thanks to visitors like you, Hawaii has been setting a string of records related to our visitor traffic.

November set a new record with over 661,000 visitors, which was nearly 4% more than in the prior year. It marked the ninth month in a row where visitor arrivals have exceeded previous records. That comes on top of three years of visitor records according to George D. Szigeti from the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA).

Beat of Hawaii Says…

“We think Hawaii continues to offer good value when compared with other destinations. This has been aided in 2015 with more flights which continue to keep airline ticket prices in check. That trend will continue and perhaps improve further in 2016.”

Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Virgin America are all focused on the Hawaii market. In November for example, air seats increased 4% compared with November 2014. That was helped by new Virgin flights from San Francisco. With new Hawaii airplane fleets due to start arriving in 2017, competition and direct flights to the islands will increase. The only negative trend noted is related to cruise ship traffic. There are fewer ships docking in Hawaii.

November 2015 data.

West coast visitors were up 5% and east coast visitors up 10%, while the low Canadian dollar caused a 5% decrease in visitors from Canada. Spending increased 2.5% to $1.1 Billion.

Comparison of island visitors and spending in November 2015 compared with prior year

  • Oahu visitors up 4% and spending up 1%
  • Kauai visitors up 1% and spending up 10%
  • Maui up visitors up 3% and spending up 5%
  • Big Island up 1% and spending up 3%

2 thoughts on “Hawaii Sets Tourism Records Aided by Airline Competition”

  1. The pollution of cruise ships is horrible and I don’t see fewer cruise ships coming to the Hawaiian Islands a problem in that important aspect…

  2. Woww hawaii looks so peaceful never but I hope to either win and live in hawaii. Thank you Cheryl cacchione

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