New players are starting to emerge in Hawaii Island’s international tourism game, as 2016 saw a noticeable increase in arrivals and expenditures from South Korean and Taiwanese visitors.
New players are starting to emerge in Hawaii Island’s international tourism game, as 2016 saw a noticeable increase in arrivals and expenditures from South Korean and Taiwanese visitors.
Though the numbers still don’t compare to the largest markets — statewide, nearly 1.5 million Japanese tourists visited in 2016, as compared to 223,096 from South Korea — these smaller areas represent a deliberate shift in emphasis for tourism planners.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority has been “strategically looking at developing international markets to diversify the visitor mix,” said director of marketing Jadie Goo.
The number of Korean outbound travelers in particular has been on the rise for the past 10 years, she said. But just 11 percent of the 16 million travelers visiting the United States annually come to Hawaii.
“Considering Hawaii’s geography to Korea, we continue to see opportunities for growth out of this market,” Goo said.
Ross Birch, executive director of the Island of Hawaii Visitors Bureau, said he and his staff have made three “travel missions” to South Korea in the past two years. Capturing that market is a matter of catering towards two particular types of travelers, he said: honeymooners and golfers.
“The Korean market has leaned toward Maui as its go-to because they do have the (well-known) golf courses,” Birch said. “Now they’re starting to become aware that our golf properties are that quality as well.”
Through November 2016, 16,578 Korean tourists had visited Hawaii Island, a 22.4 percent increase over 2015 numbers.
Korean visitors are also drawn to the islands because of the exchange rate between the dollar and the won, which is “still pretty strong,” Birch said.
Exchange rates are typically the best indicators for how a given tourism market will fare, but the tiny Taiwanese market has grown in spite of the U.S. dollar strengthening against the Taiwainese dollar.
In 2012, just 1,699 Taiwanese visitors came to Hawaii Island. As of November of last year, that number increased to 5,500 tourists. The Big Island had 34 percent of all visitors statewide, second only to Oahu.
Part of the island’s appeal comes from an unconventional area, as people in Taiwan are running fans, and the home of the Ironman World Championship has an inherent draw.
“They have, I think, more marathons per capita than anywhere else in Asia,” Birch said.
Hawaii Tourism Taiwan, HTA’s marketing partner, launched the Hawaii Crystal Run on the northwest coast of Taiwan in 2015, drawing more than 5,000 runners its first year. The winner receives an all-expenses trip to Hawaii.
“We really try to dive down and find that one niche — what’s that one trigger that’s going to bring people here?” Birch said. The Crystal Run is “a great tie-in.”
Birch said the new international flight route between Kona International Airport and Tokyo’s Haneda Airport is expected to boost overall accessibility for East Asian travelers.
The HTA is also working on new marketing campaigns for visitors from Southeast Asia, particularly Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. That area was added just last year.
“It takes a couple of years to get settled in, and then you see the (numbers change),” Birch said.
Overall, the United States remains Hawaii’s largest tourism market, a title it’s not likely to yield any time soon.
“Numbers are steadily growing,” Birch said. “On an international market, I think that’s because Americans aren’t visiting Europe as much. That’s kind of helping us maintain our numbers.”
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.