Good news from the Aloha State: Hawaii’s tourism economy is still showing positive gains following seven months of increased visitor arrivals and spending. Efforts to drive demand and boost short-term arrivals have resulted in visitor expenditures increasing 10.2 percent over 2009, to $6.4 billion and total arrivals increasing by nine percent.
July was a strong month for Hawaii’s convention, meetings, incentive (CMI) market with 11,924 visitors, a 78.9 percent increase over 2009, coming specifically to attend several large conventions including the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Baptist World Congress.
"Airlift continues to be the key component to the rebounding of Hawaii’s tourism economy," said Mike McCartney, president and CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority. "Following the addition of direct flights from the U.S. West to the Neighbor Islands, we have seen a healthier distribution of visitors to all islands resulting in heavier visitor traffic and spending contributing to their island communities."
"While we see many positive indicators, we are mindful that the global travel industry, including Hawaii, has not fully recovered from successive years of lower consumer and business spending," McCartney added. "It will continue to take a collective effort from HTA, our marketing partners, our experience and program providers, as well as the collective goodwill of our people towards visitors, to drive demand...in support of our tourism economy."
