Article from: The Maui News

Maui County welcomed 168,131 visitors in November and has had nearly 2 million in the first 11 months of 2010.

That is far below record levels, but the November figure is an 18.8 percent improvement over the same month last year, and the year-to-date total is about 10 percent better than the slump year of 2009.

Statewide, total visitor arrivals were up 18.2 percent to 577,540 in November. For the first 11 months of the year, total arrivals rose 8.6 percent to nearly 6.5 million visitors.

The figures were released Tuesday by the Hawaii Tourism Authority and gave increased evidence of a surging rebound in the visitor industry. The rest of the state’s economy is not doing so well, according to a report earlier this month by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization.

However, as the largest single source of jobs, income and taxes, the visitor industry is bound to help pull the island economy up if it continues to recover.

“The numbers are looking really strong,” said Terryl Vencl, executive director of the Maui Visitors and Convention Bureau. “A robust industry can yield taxes and even locally grounded spending that is not just visitor spending.”

This is the trickledown effect, Vencl said, that allows people even in sectors apparently isolated from tourism to “pay their rent and bills and gas.”

Every county had double-digit increases. Visitors to Oahu were up 15.7 percent to 349,675. Kauai was up 14.6 percent to 71,961. Hawaii was up 16.4 percent to 101,510.

The total of visitor-days from January through November is 59 million.

Spending grew even faster than head count, by 30.4 percent statewide (36.7 percent on Maui island), to $976 million in November. That was an increase of $228 million over November 2009.

The increase also represented the third consecutive month that total visitor spending increased by double digits statewide.

For the first 11 months, spending totals $10.3 billion, up 16 percent.

Authority President and Chief Executive Officer Mike McCartney said Hawaii’s rate of recovery was well ahead of competing destinations, such as Mexico and the Caribbean. But the state’s tourism sector has a long way to go to offset recession-induced declines over the last two years, he added.

”This means that, more than ever, we need to continue our focused marketing efforts to maintain the momentum we’ve achieved in boosting arrivals and increasing visitor spending,” McCartney said.

Tourism authorities attributed the big rise in visitor spending in part to an 18.2 percent jump in visitor arrivals to the islands last month compared with the same month in 2009.

That included sizable increases in the number of tourists who flew to Hawaii from the West Coast and Canada last month, and also those who arrived by ship.

For example, 44 percent more Canadians and 76 percent more Japanese visited Kauai in November compared with the same month last year. About 27 percent more residents of the West Coast visited Oahu last month than a year ago.

But the total number of visitors who arrived in the islands between January and November of this year was up only 8.6 percent, compared with the same 11-month period in 2009.

Of the six Hawaiian islands the tourism report studied, visitor spending rose the most on Lanai, by 38.6 percent to $6.2 million.

Spending increased on the Big Island by 36.9 percent to $124.8 million; on Maui by 36.7 percent to $252.6 million; on Molokai by 33.5 percent to $2.5 million; on Oahu by 27.7 percent to $497.1 million; and on Kauai by 19.7 percent to $88.3 million.

* Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Total spending by visitors rose 30.4 percent, or $227.8 million, from November 2009, to $976 million.

Arrivals through the first 11 months of the year totaled 6.45 million, up 8.6 percent from the same period last year.

Total expenditures for the first 11 months of 2010 were $10.3 billion, a 16 percent increase compared to the same period last year, according to HTA.

For the third consecutive month (since September 2010) total visitor spending increased by double digits on all islands.

Average daily visitor spending was up 10.5 percent.

Arrivals from Canada were up 28.2 percent, U.S. West (+23%) and U.S. East (+18.1%), while arrivals from Japan rose 3.3 percent from last November.  Arrivals by cruise ships increased 43.5 percent to 16,952 visitors.

Mike McCartney, HTA president and CEO, said, “Our tourism economy continues to gain momentum.

“November was another strong month with double-digit growth in visitor arrivals and expenditures on all islands.  We are most pleased to see more than 30 percent growth in visitor spending.  This is good news for the entire state and especially our neighbor island communities which are heavily dependent upon tourism.

“It is also important to note that our rate of recovery is well ahead of other competitive destinations such as Mexico and the Caribbean.  However, an analysis by Hawaii Tourism Authority research staff shows that Hawaii is only beginning to see signs of recovery, and we still have a long way to go to offset the declines over the last two years.”

Maui hotel occupancies in November continued their double-digit gains over the depressed 2009 results for the same month.

Maui’s rate was still pedestrian at 65.7 percent, but much better than the 53.7 percent in November 2009. November is always one of the slowest months of the year for the visitor industry.

Hospitality Advisors released the survey Monday and said statewide occupancy gained 6.7 percentage points to 67.8 percent in November. That represented an acceleration in the comeback of the visitor industry, since the gain for the first 11 months was 5.8 percentage points, to 70.8 percent.

Other indicators, such as visitor arrivals, also have shown an accelerating rebound from a decline that began in the second quarter of 2008 and deepened dramatically after October 2008.

Oahu had the highest occupancy rate last month, 75.2 percent, but that was just a small gain over the 71.6 percent of the year before.

The Neighbor Islands have trailed Oahu in the tourism rebound, in part because east Asia has led the world economic recovery, and Oahu gets most Asian visitors. But Maui is catching up.

The Neighbor Island picture is mixed. In November, Hawaii gained 10.1 percentage points to 55.7 percent, but Kauai gained only 4 percentage points to 51 percent.

Maui room rates indicated that the Valley Isle’s operators are continuing to discount prices, which has helped buoy head counts. While this does not always do much for the bottom line of hotels and resort condominiums, it is considered good news for restaurants, retailers and activity providers, who have more potential customers on the island.

And, in November, the gain in occupancy did translate into a strong gain in revenue per available room for Maui.

Rack rates were boosted a mere 3 percent, to $207, but the revenue per room figure zoomed by more than 20 percent to $136.

The average statewide daily room rate last month rose 3.9 percent, to almost $169. That was the largest month-to-month upswing since March 2008, and only the third month out of the past 29 months that a rise in the statewide rate was reported.

”We’re seeing some strength in Waikiki, and momentum is building on Maui,” said Joseph Toy, president and chief executive officer of Hospitality Advisors. ”But the recovery has been uneven. They’re still fairly far behind on Kauai and the Big Island.”

Statewide room rates are still well below the average of $201 that was reached in 2008 during the height of the market, Toy said.

”To get back to where we were will be a long process, particularly for room rates,” he added.

There is no single approach in the island visitor industry.

Oahu operators pushed up rates by about $6 to $151 and saw single-room revenue rise a little more than 10 percent to $114.

On Hawaii, operators lowered rates by $3 to $174 and saw room revenue amount gain by 20 percent to $97.

On Kauai, rates were unchanged at $176, and revenue per available room rose $6 to $90.

Single-room revenue of under $100 is a poor showing for Neighbor Island resorts.

For the first 11 months, the Big Island’s revenue per available room was $102. Kauai’s was $110. Oahu’s was $115. It is unusual, or at least it used to be, for Oahu, with its many budget rooms, not to be at the bottom.

Maui has always been at the top, and so far this year its revenue per available room is averaging $151.

* Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@maui news.com. The Associated Press contributed to this article.