Hawaii’s Travel Industry Faces Challenging Trends

Americans are traveling more often, but making shorter trips closer to home. They also have more destinations to choose from. These trends don’t bode well for Hawaii, one of the most remote places in world, tourism officials said.

“For many years, Hawaii has enjoyed an enviable position atop the heap of global tropical destinations,” said John Monahan, president and chief executive of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau. “However, our competitors have not been standing still. They have been consistently upgrading, improving and aggressively marketing their product, and at an accelerated pace in recent years.”

Speaking to nearly 1,000 industry officials at the bureau’s annual luncheon in Waikiki, Monahan warned of challenges tourism-dependent Hawaii will face in the coming years. The message was bleaker than in recent years when officials gathered to celebrate record visitor numbers.

Visitors from Japan continue to decline, the U.S. economy is not as strong as years past and more tourist destinations are emerging all over the world.

HVCB, a private agency hired by the state to market Hawaii to North America, reported a “slowing of business” this year with arrivals forecast at slightly below last year’s record levels. But visitor expenditures are on pace to eclipse last year’s mark. Last year, Hawaii welcomed a total of 7.4 million people that spent a record $12 billion.