HONOLULU — Visitors to the Garden Isle during October spent 18.5 percent more this year from the same period in 2011. According to Hawai‘i Tourism Authority figures released last week, there were more tourists visiting Kaua‘i in 2012 who were
HONOLULU — Visitors to the Garden Isle during October spent 18.5 percent more this year from the same period in 2011.
According to Hawai‘i Tourism Authority figures released last week, there were more tourists visiting Kaua‘i in 2012 who were spending more money than a year ago.
During October, guests spent an average of $182 daily per person, leading to revenue of $109.6 million for the month. This is an 18.5 percent increase in spending over October 2011.
There were 83,854 visitors to Kaua‘i in October 2012, representing a 2.7 percent increase over the same time period last year.
Of those visitors, 44,958 came to Kaua‘i from the Mainland, representing a 5.6 percent increase over last year, and 2,996 visited from Japan, which is a 28.2 percent increase over 2011. There were 11 percent fewer Canadian visitors, with only 3,652 coming to the Garden Isle.
Of those who visited, however, 53.6 percent spent their entire trip on Kaua‘i.
Visitors come to Kaua‘i via both by air travel and on cruise ships.
The number of tourists flying to Lihu‘e in October was up 7.8 percent from the year before, with 45,974 passengers. Total air seats for those flying to the state increased by 11.3 percent over 2011, with 828,932 seats sold.
In the first 10 months of 2012, there were 11.4 percent more air seats sold going to Lihu‘e.
Total scheduled air seats to Hawai‘i grew 11.7 percent from October 2011 to 823,091. The number of chartered seats on flights was down 27.6 percent to 5,841, with four less chartered flights each from Japan and Las Vegas.
For cruises, the total number of visitors who came by cruise ships or by air to board cruise ships increased 11.8 percent to 36,638 visitors in October 2012.
A total of 13 out-of-state cruise ships came with 28,006 visitors on board, compared to 10 ships with 21,856 visitors in October 2011.
In the first 10 months of 2012, 130,263 visitors came aboard 68 out-of-state cruise ships. This is 39.1 percent higher compared to the 93,636 visitors that boarded the 53 cruise ships during the same period in 2011.
In 2012, more than 905,168 people have visited Kaua‘i, representing a 6.8 percent increase over 2011. In that same time frame, visitor expenditures have risen by 22.6 percent to $1.2 billion.
