Hawaii’s tourism industry enjoyed its best year ever in 2012 as travelers visited the state in record numbers and smashed the destination’s previous all-time expenditures mark.
Visitors spent $14.3 billion across the Islands last year, shattering Hawaii’s previous expenditures peak of $12.7 billion set in 2007 and outpacing 2011’s total spending by 18.7%.
Hawaii also welcomed more than 7.9 million visitors in 2012, eclipsing the state’s existing all-time high of 7.6 million arrivals set in 2006, according to figures released by the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) Jan. 24.
Mike McCartney, HTA president and CEO, outlined the financial impact of Hawaii’s impressive tourism turnaround following the relatively recent low point of the economic downturn.
“In 2009, we hit a low of $27 million in visitor spending per day, $930 million in state tax revenue and supported 133,000 jobs,” he said in a statement. “Today, just three years later, daily visitor spending has topped $39 million, state tax revenue reached $1.58 billion, and tourism is supporting 167,000 jobs.”
David Uchiyama, the HTA’s senior vice president of brand management, attributed Hawaii’s record-breaking year, in large part, to a substantial increase in airlift in 2012, noting the 8.5% boost year over year in available seats on nonstop flights to the state.
“I think we’ll see a little bit more seat inventory growth from North America in 2013,” he said. “But I think we’ll see quite a bit more seat inventory growth from Asia.” 
Bolstered by new nonstop flights linking Hawaii with several Asian, arrivals from countries like China and South Korea surged 41.8% and 39.3%, respectively, year over year.
Uchiyama also conceded that Hawaii’s dramatic year-over-year increase in visitor spending was driven, in part, by rising average daily room rates (ADR) at the state’s hotels.
According to data released recently by STR, Oahu hotels boosted their ADR 11.2% year over year in 2012, while revenue per available room there jumped 16.7%; both increases were the largest percentage gains nationwide.
“The industry has made quite a bit of investment in their product, and you have a new Waikiki,” Uchiyama said, referring to the large number of hotel renovations there in recent years and subsequent ADR increases. “People who haven’t been here in a while are telling us they’re blown away by the reinvestment.”
HTA officials are optimistic that Hawaii's tourism industry will see more growth in 2013 and have set aggressive targets of $14.88 billion in total visitor expenditures and 8.2 million arrivals for this year.