Hawaii sees big gains in visitor arrivals, hotel occupancy

Hawaii sees big gains in visitor arrivals, hotel occupancy
- 2004-06-11 - Pacific Business News (Honolulu)
Prabha Natarajan

A steady steam of visitors from Japan and the U.S. mainland boosted hotel occupancy to 73.4 percent for the week of May 30 to June 5.

That was a 20.7-percentage-point increase from 2003, according to the Hawaii Hotel Flash Report from Hospitality Advisors LLC and Smith Travel Research, released Friday.

A 17.4 percent increase in visitors arrivals -- 49.1 percent more Japanese and 10 percent more American -- contributed to 20,000 more visitors in Hawaii during the week.

This helped Hawaii report much higher occupancy rates for the week ending June 5 than the national average of 61.2 percent, which was down 4.1 percentage points from last year.

Hawaii hotels charged more this week.

Room rates on average were at $157.02, up 5.4 percent from last year.

Maui again led the islands in occupancy with 75.1 percent. Oahu reported 73.9 percent, Kauai 71.9 percent, and the Big Island 59.5 percent.

Average room rates were highest on Kauai at $184.90, a 11.4 percent increase from 2003. Maui was a close second at $180.44. Big Island hotels charged an average of $142.47 and Oahu hotels remained the cheapest at $125.55.

Hawaii hotels did much better than comparable markets during the week.

Los Angeles hotels reported 66.4 percent occupancy, down 1.5 percentage points from last year, and charged $89.34, down 1.7 percent from last year.

Orlando hotels reported 64.4 percent occupancy, up 6.6 percentage points, and charged $84.08, up 3.1 percent.

San Diego hotels reported 66.1 percent occupancy, down 8.6 percentage points, and charged $103.68, which was down 0.1 percent from last year.