Published on : Saturday, February 1, 2014
According to the Hawaii Tourism Authority report, the state tourism economy reached a record $14.5 billion in annual visitor expenditures in 2013 and contributed $1.5 billion in state tax revenue.
HTA awaits the trend to continue into the first half of 2014.
The Kauai visitor spending reached $1.5 billion in the same period.
Kauai Visitors Sue Kanoho, Bureau Executive Director said that tourist influx for the month of December were down 6.5 percent but that Kauai finished the year up 2.7 percent.
This compares to influx increases of 1.2 percent for the Big Island and 2.3 percent for Maui. The growth in 2013 on Kauai is indicative of the HTA’s efforts to distribute visitors across all of the Hawaiian Islands.
Chip Bahouth, general manager of the 400-room Sheraton Kauai Resort in Poipu, said, “HTA offers a top-line analysis, but businesses work off a bottom line, so the numbers need some perspective.
Yes, 2013 was a good year, but not from a profit standpoint. There is still room to grow and a continuing need to grow that revenue.
We are healthier than in 2012 and 2011 and we are not in cardiac arrest like 2008, but we still need to do more.”
Tags: Hawaii Tourism
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