USA (HAWAII). Japanese arrivals, so integral to DFS’s fortunes in Hawaii, rose by +7% year-on-year in July, helping to offset a slight -1.6% fall in daily spending.
Overall spending by Japanese visitors rose +5.5% in the month to US$192.5 million, according to the latest figures from Hawaii Tourism Authority. Japanese tourism was boosted by increased air service to Kona and Honolulu.
Year-to-date, Hawaii’s four largest visitor markets, U.S. West (+11.2% to US$3.66 billion), U.S. East (+13% to US$2.66 billion), Japan (+12.3% to US$1.25 billion) and Canada (+8.7% to US$655.2 million), have all reported strong year-on-year growth in visitor spending.
Arrivals from China declined for both July (-11.5% to 13,489) and year-to-date (-10.5% to 96,379). Korean visitor numbers rose by a healthy +11.8% to 21,415, though they remain slightly down for the year-to-date (-1.1% to 134,715) of 2016.
