HONOLULU — The CEO of Hawaiian Airlines says Hawaii’s hospitality industry must do more to make Chinese visitors feel welcome.
Mark Dunkerley told a retailers’ convention on Thursday that the state is unprepared for the potential number of Chinese visitors the state could receive. He says a survey found that Chinese visitors do not see Hawaii as a friendly destination.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports that Dunkerley sees several obstacles for Hawaii to tap into the potentially vast Chinese market. Those include a lack of mid- and low-priced hotels, not enough promotion in China and too few Mandarin speakers in Waikiki.
Dunkerley says Japanese visitors last year outnumbered Chinese visitors more than 10-to-1. But he notes that Chinese visitors’ average daily spending in Hawaii was the most of any region.