KAILUA-KONA — The last year has been unlike any other in the history of Hawaii Island tourism.
The return of Japan Airlines direct service to Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole (KOA) just over 12 months ago marked the beginning of the roller coaster ride, bolstering unprecedented industry success on Hawaii Island in the fourth quarter of 2017 — a trend that more or less kept pace through the first quarter of 2018.
Then Kilauea exploded and the numbers came crashing down.
“It’s something we’ve never really seen in the history of tourism, where it goes from extreme high to extreme low in a really short period of time,” said Ross Birch, executive director of the Island of Hawaii Visitors Bureau. “Luckily, we were able to maintain some momentum through May and June, but then it really started to taper off quickly.”
The lava flow and subsequent destruction have subsided. But Hurricane Lane in August and Tropical Storm Olivia in September have each done their part to keep at arm’s length an industry resurgence for which tourism officials and businesses have been waiting anxiously.
Visitor spending on Hawaii Island dropped more than 7 percent in July, while arrivals dipped almost 13 percent from 2017. The hotel occupancy rate declined nearly 5 percent that month and Kohala Coast resorts fell victim to a 7 percent drop in revenue per available room (RevPAR).
Officials attributed nearly all of that decline to safety concerns and poor air quality in the wake of the volcanic eruption in Puna.
Spending and arrival statistics are forthcoming for August, but the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) released hotel figures Monday, which indicated a steady decline.
Occupancy, RevPAR and average daily rate (ADR) — the average amount charged per hotel room per day — were either flat or falling on the island for the third consecutive month, according to HTA statistics.
RevPAR was down 10 percent across the island and occupancy dropped more than 6 percent as compared to the same months in 2017, year-over-year decreases that exceeded those recorded in July. ADR also fell by two points in August.
Kohala Coast resorts were in even worse shape with an almost 15 percent dip in RevPAR and saw their occupancy rates plummet 9.5 percent from last year.
HTA blamed the numbers for August on Kilauea and Hurricane Lane, as occupancy actually decreased statewide. If the weather turns, however, Birch is optimistic moving forward, mostly because of the return of Japan Airlines direct flights.
“We’re hopefully anticipating that extreme high to come back again because we do have the air access in place that didn’t leave the market when everything dropped,” he said.
Birch couldn’t say whether the numbers started climbing this month, and September figures won’t be available until near the end of October. He added that September has historically been a hit-or-miss month for Hawaii Island, and considering Olivia, numbers might go either way.
“A good group base helps in September,” he said. “Timeshare does well. From and independent traveler standpoint, it’s typically a pretty soft season for us. It looks like from the Japan market that September was pretty (good).”
Japanese travel is crucial to the health of Hawaii Island tourism as it’s traditionally the second largest travel market to the island and the state outside of the mainland U.S.
Based on numbers from the HTA, year-over-year visitor arrivals from Japan jumped nearly 33 percent in 2017 with only a little more than three months of renewed direct flights. It had decreased in every year except 2012 and 2016 since Japan Airlines stopped flying direct to Kona in 2010. And the 2016 bump in arrivals was only a meager 1.7 percent.
Visitor spending from Japan didn’t struggle as mightily during those off years, but dipped every year between 2013-2015. Spending bounced back slightly in 2016 and jumped nearly 8 percent in 2017, according to HTA. Presumably, a significant portion of that bounce back is attributable to the return of Japan Airlines direct flights.
Representatives of Japan Airlines visited KOA Sept. 15 to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the return of direct flights to Hawaii Island after a roughly seven-year hiatus.
Kiyoto Morioka, senior vice president of the Americas for Japan Airlines, explained the impact Hawaii’s tumultuous times had on incoming travel from the country.
“We have seen a decline in group travel from Japan since May, about a 10 percent decrease in the number of passengers” said Morioka. “However, we have been concurrently strengthening our sales activities in Japan to boost not only the Kona route, but all of our other Hawaii routes. We also plan to continue to promote our Hawaii routes as the volcanic activity declines.”
“Typhoons Lane and Olivia had limited impact on our operations,” he continued. “We are now starting to resume our flight operations from Kansai Airport.”
So what we should also do is tax the people more who have second homes here on the island and cripple that secondary source of employment for us. That way everyone gets the squeeze. Oh and give raises to Government employees.