Hawaii Forecast: The Latest Trends in the Aloha State

Travel Agent recently spoke to some notable tourism industry representatives and learned the latest trends and insights coming out of the Aloha State this year and heading into 2015.

The Multigenerational Market is Looking to Splurge

Hawaii has basically been a multi-generational hotspot for a long time but what many operators are beginning to see for the first time is this segment’s desire for all things luxury. And they are sparing no expense.

“Multigenerational travel is one the clearest trends in Hawaii and has been for a long time,” says Jack E. Richards, president and CEO of Pleasant Holidays, “but multigenerational travelers are beginning to move upscale. We don’t see a lot of sales in the lower category hotels. We are seeing huge clusters in sales of four- and five-star resorts.”

And Hawaii will have the properties to accommodate such clients.

Montage Hotels & Resorts announced in 2013 an expansion of its luxury hotel collection with the addition of Montage Kapalua Bay. Andaz Maui at Wailea resort, a five-star resort, officially opened its doors in July of 2013 in the Wailea section of Maui.

“Hawaii is looking great for 2015 because the economy is improving and when the economy improves, people tend to travel a bit more upscale,” says Richards.

Booking Windows are Lengthening

When the 2009 economic crisis hit, everyone in the traveling industry knew that value was here to stay. But everyone knew those bookings windows, which in many cases were about three to four weeks out in the year following 2009, would some day return to normal. 

And that certainly appears to be the case in not only Hawaii but in many major destinations throughout the world. 

“The second-biggest trend we are seeing out of Hawaii is the lengthening of booking windows,” says Richards. “They are now moving out five to 10 months in advance. Even in 2011 and 2012, there were still some shorter booking windows, but now we are booking significant numbers already in June and July.”

Matthew Upchurch, chairman and CEO of Virtuoso, told our sister publicatiion, Luxury Travel Advisor, earlier this month that luxury consumers are booking further and further out, simply because the properties they want to stay at are filling up at hyper speed. Booking six to eight months out, or even a year out, is not unheard of anymore.

LGBT Still Has Room to Grow

Although we were unable to gather statistics to support this, several operators are reporting that the much-anticipated boom of the gay destination wedding market in Hawaii hasn't exactly unfolded as anticipated. A University of Hawaii researcher said in November of last year that a law to allow same-sex marriage in Hawaii was expected to boost tourism there by $217 million over the next three years.

But operators are simply not seeing it.

“In our opinion, there hasn’t really been any significant growth in this market,” says Richards. “We just have not seen it. It could be doing well for other people as Hawaii in general is just such a huge wedding destination, but we specifically are not seeing a major pickup in this segment.”

And Joelle Arriola, Classic Vacations’ product director for Hawaii and South Pacific, agrees.

“There really hasn't been much growth in the last year in the LGBT market as a whole,” says Arriola, “but we would imagine this being a market that will continue to grow. There is just so much marketing and press releases going around on this market that it can really only go up.”

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