Mainland traffic to Lihue, Kona increases

Hawaii is still getting more visitors than last year from the Mainland this month, but the extra visitors aren't flying to Honolulu.
Instead, Hawaii hoteliers are seeing an increase in traffic to the Big Island and Kauai. Traffic to Maui and Oahu has been flat, or worse.
A look at the arrivals figures for October, posted through Wednesday by the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, shows domestic arrivals are 1.1 percent above year-ago levels but arrivals are up only 0.2 percent to Maui and are down 0.4 percent to Oahu.
But arrivals to the Big Island are up 5.9 percent and they are up 23.2 percent to Kauai.
In raw numbers, Honolulu this month has welcomed more than 120,000 of the more than 180,000 domestic arrivals, but the count was closer to 121,000 a year ago at the same time. Maui has welcomed 41,000 arrivals, fewer than 100 more than a year ago.
The Big Island has welcomed more than 11,000 domestic arrivals, up more than 600 from a year earlier. Kauai has welcomed more than 9,400 arrivals, about 1,800 more than a year ago.
This means four out of five extra visitors are flying to Kauai right now.
Over the summer the trend was similar except that Honolulu domestic arrivals were down more in June, July and August, and Big Island arrivals contributed more to the overall increase than is currently the case.
Scheduled passenger airlift to Kona and Lihue has been greater this year than last and ATA Airlines this summer launched the first direct Mainland service to Hilo in years. The Big Island also was able to offer slightly lower hotel room rates than Kauai and Maui due to a larger inventory on the Kona side.