Tourism Update (and a little extra)

I was slightly surprised to find out in today's news that visitor arrivals to Hawai'i in March increased by 4.2% (compared to a year ago), despite the 18% drop in visitor arrivals from Japan. Of course, Hawai'i's economy will be hit hard by Japan's recent earthquake for the months to come. But Hawai'i still hosted 633,365 visitors last month, and this is encouraging news for tourism in the islands.

It will be important to look at the next several month's statistics to see how our economy is being affected by Japan's crisis. I think that a large contributor to March's strong numbers was the Hawaiian Airlines sale - Hawaiian Airlines introduced 'Iwakeli'i, its third Airbus 330, with a special $333 roundtrip fare offer for a limited time, and many people chose Hawai'i as their spring break destination because of this.

I knew of over 25 USC classmates who visited Oahu during spring break, and I have about 5 other friends who will be traveling to the islands in the beginning of summer vacation. The relatively low airfares are definitely helping to keep visitors coming to the islands, but once the prices rise again (especially because fuel surcharges continue to increase), I wonder how tourism in the state will do... Visitors from Japan have always made up the majority of our tourists, and they are significant contributors to our economy. Since we cannot count on them being able to travel to the islands for a vacation anytime soon, the state will have to figure out how to draw visitors from other places, like the mainland and maybe China (with all of its new and growing wealth!).



And on another note,
I decided to take a few minutes to ask my friend, Jim Tung (USC senior, originally from Taiwan), a few questions, since it was his first time to Hawai'i. He said that they really enjoyed their stay on Oahu and would definitely want to go back. But if airfare had been more expensive, they probably wouldn't have been able to visit during spring break. (Of course, college students arguably have the most elastic demand, but I think that consumer demand is pretty elastic in general right now...)

He also mentioned that he would really consider retiring in Hawai'i - but not living there at a younger age because of the lack of career opportunities and high cost of living. I think this position is pretty representative of many young adults nowadays... With the cost of living continuing to increase, even young adults who want to move back home feel like they cannot afford it until they are older. Unless we see some changes, I think that Oahu will continue to experience a shift toward the more affluent, elderly demographic over the next several decades.