Good news! West coast arrivals are up, along with Canada!

For Immediate Release: May 8, 2015 Statement Attributable to Ronald Williams, Chief Executive Officer Hawaii Tourism Authority Visitor Arrivals up Three Percent during First Quarter Visitor expenditures for the state's lead economic driver have plateaued during the first quarter of 2015 following three years of significant growth. However, with increased air seat inventory and spring break falling earlier this year, visitor arrivals increased three percent to 2.1 million visitors through March 2015. The softening of the market can be attributed to lower average daily spending (-4.2% to $189.8), as visitors within primary markets are adjusting their vacation budgets and length of stay to economic factors like fluctuating exchange rates. Since the U.S. dollar remains strong in some of our major international markets, we continue to work with our global contractors to roll out innovative campaigns like airline mileage promotions and other brand partnerships to ease the cost of travel to Hawaii.   We are also pleased to welcome additional airlift from our core U.S. market with Virgin America's inaugural flights to Oahu and Maui this fall. These routes will help to increase access and arrivals to the state and enhance HTA's efforts to balance visitor distribution to all of the Hawaiian Islands. We continue to work with our global contractors and airline partners to sustain this boost in airlift and identify potential markets for growth.  # # # Media Contact: Angela Rodriguez Hawaii Tourism Authority (808) 973-2272 Angela@gohta.net For Immediate Release: May 8, 2015 HTA Release (15-07) TOTAL VISITOR ARRIVALS ROSE 7 PERCENT COMPARED TO MARCH 2014 Total Visitor Expenditures Grew 3 percent to $1.3 Billion HONOLULU - Total visitor arrivals to the Hawaiian Islands in March 2015 rose seven percent to 780,056 visitors, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Hawaii Tourism Authority. Arrivals by air increased 6.6 percent to 765,358 visitors, while arrivals by cruise ships were up 38.8 percent to 14,698 visitors. Despite lower average daily spending (-2.9% to $183 per person), total visitor expenditures grew three percent to $1.3 billion due to a 6.2 percent increase in total visitor days compared to March 2014. For the U.S. West, arrivals by air climbed 13.3 percent to 303,827 visitors. Combined with increased daily spending (+1.3% to $161 per person), U.S. West visitor expenditures jumped 12.1 percent to $434.2 million. U.S. East arrivals grew 2.6 percent to 170,013 visitors, but daily spending was down (-2.7% to $186 per person) compared to March 2014. This resulted in a 1.8 percent drop in visitor expenditures to $299.7 million. Arrivals from Japan fell 5.7 percent to 127,400 visitors. Much lower daily spending (-14.9% to $223 per person) also contributed to a 21.7 percent decrease in visitor expenditures to $165.6 million. Canadian arrivals grew 4.3 percent to 77,237 visitors in March 2015. Daily spending increased (+9.3% to $165 per person) and visitors stayed longer (+1.7% to 12.74 days) than last year. This led to a 15.9 percent growth in expenditures to $162.5 million. Arrivals from All Other markets were up 15.7 percent to 86,880 visitors. Combined expenditures from All Other visitors rose 10.5 percent to $196 million. Visitors days increased among the four larger Hawaiian Islands in comparison to March 2014: Oahu (+6%), Maui (+5.2%), Hawaii Island (+7.9%) and Kauai (+4.4%). There were 1,046,467 total air seats to Hawaii in March 2015, up 6.5 percent from a year ago. Scheduled seats from Oceania (+25.7%), Canada (+14.1%), U.S. West (+10.1%) and U.S. East (+8.7%) increased, offsetting fewer seats from Japan (-7.8%) and Other Asia (-7.6%). Year-to-Date 2015: For the first quarter of 2015, total arrivals grew three percent to 2,120,673 visitors. However, total visitor expenditures were down 1.3 percent to $3.8 billion. Total visitor expenditures increased on Kauai (+8.1%) and Maui (+4.6%), but declined on Hawaii Island (-7.9%) and Oahu (-5.2%). View Complete Release HTA recognizes the use of the 'okina ['] or glottal stop, one of the eight consonants of the (modern) Hawaiian language; and the kahakō[ā] or macron (e.g., in place names of Hawai'i such as Lāna'i). However, HTA respects the individual use of these markings for names of organizations and businesses. Due to technological limitations, this current communication may not include all Hawaiian diacritical markings.