Big Island visitor arrivals, spending continue to rise

HILO — There was no spring slump this year for Hawaii Island tourism.

Statistics from the Hawaii Tourism Authority released Thursday show double-digit growth in visitor arrivals and visitor spending over last year’s numbers — for the fifth month in a row.

Year-to-date, visitors have spent more than $1 billion on-island.

In May, the most recent month available, visitor spending rose nearly 14 percent over 2016. Visitor arrivals were up “significantly,” according to the HTA report, which attributed the rise to more flights between the West Coast and Japan.

Arrivals also increased from the Canadian market, which stumbled last year, and the East Coast.

A total of 133,976 people came to the island, up 17 percent from 2016.

“May is typically our low shoulder season,” said Ross Birch, executive director of the Island of Hawaii Visitors Bureau.

A late Easter this year meant later spring breaks on the mainland, however.

“So our winter season extended until about the end of March,” Birch said. April, typically a month preferred by corporate group travelers, was instead booked up with leisure visitors. That in turn pushed the corporate travelers into May, keeping tourism steady through the month.

“The incentive (travel) market is something that really took a beating in 2009, 2010, 2011,” Birch said. “We’re now back on the recovery where groups are doing trips as incentives for their business.”

Cruise ship arrivals also are on the upswing after a slip in numbers in 2015 and 2016. HTA data shows a 27.5 percent year-to-date increase in arrivals over last year. And May itself saw a 50 percent boost over 2016 numbers. Last year, 9,347 people visited via cruise ship. This year, that number was 13,937.

“I know they’ve been adding in some summer cruises, but I wasn’t anticipating a 50 percent jump,” Birch said. “May was a huge month for cruise ships.”

Between 2015 and 2016, overall cruise ship numbers fell 8.9 percent. But in 2017, cruise ship numbers had been steady through the year and tourism groups are working to keep that trend going. Earlier this month, the visitors bureau hosted a three-day gathering on the Big Island for 10 representatives of major cruise lines, including several that do not currently visit Hilo and Kailua-Kona.

Representatives from Silver Sea, Crystal Cruises, The World, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Seaborne, Disney, Princess, Access and Norwegian took part in the summit.

“It works better to have them work with each other,” Birch said. “They like it as well, so they have an opportunity to talk about the industry as a whole, and our partners can understand where the industry is going.”

The cruise industry is beginning to shift toward so-called “ultra” ships, which can hold up to 3,000 passengers (for comparison, the Norwegian-owned Pride of America, which frequently stops in Hilo, carries 2,250 passengers).

“It’s down the line, these are conversations for five, six years down the line,” Birch said. “These boats are now under construction.”

When they are built and in service, though, accommodating the ultra ships would mean changes at ports around the state.

“Currently, Hilo would be a challenge to dock a boat like that, and to find enough tenders in Kona would be a challenge,” Birch said. “Actually, every island is going to need to make adjustments.”

“If they’re going to phase out the other boats … we don’t want to lose the cruise ship traffic altogether,” he said.