visitor arrivals down 14%: higher airfares, how do you cope

how would you cut down on travel budget when you cannot save on airfares? cut your stay in hawaii shorter? try to get cheaper accomodations? save by eating at cheaper resturants? what are your plans?

some types of visitor services will make less money. does this mean that the most economical ones will do better?

visitor arrivals down 14%: higher airfares, how do you cope

As you an owner of a vacation rental I assume that you have a vested interest in the decline in visitors. is yours one of the more economical ones?

Instead of going to Hawaii, many people will just go somewhere else where it is not only cheaper to get to by air, but is cheaper once they get there. Geography is a major problem for Hawaii and nothing can be done about it.

visitor arrivals down 14%: higher airfares, how do you cope

i own an illegal vacation rental, actually we now also provide camping. hahaha! and yes, on moloka%26#39;i we are soon to become ';legal';. accommodation here is urgently needed. had a state tax license for 7 years now. bad news though is that we are retiring. too much work.

so why did you drop your old name, budweiser? ashamed of the people you have insulted over the last few years? are we having fun yet? can you actually post anything good and wholesome, darling?

halemalu - I think the first to be impacted will be the west coast folks who used to pop over for long weekends or a week since the airfares were so cheap.

As for us, we only go ever 5 years and try not to scrimp too much when we do. We bought our plane tickets last November before all the current problems. We will stay in the military resort on Oahu this trip and at the military camp in the volcano park on the Big Island, a substantial savings over the normal places to stay. We will also be staying in the Hotel Lanai vs the Four Seasons. We will do some cooking in but this is a vacation so we won%26#39;t do that every night.

I did read a piece not to long ago that the goal of the visitor experts on the islands was to have less visitors willing to spend more. I don%26#39;t know if that is true or not but judging by some prices it could be headed that way.

we can put them up in a tent.

it is going to be very difficult, but instead of visiting once or even twice a year, we will probably

go every couple of years, after accumulating air miles.

And you are right BB no more long weekends.

At this point, I am afraid to book on any airline.

hi all

we went to oahu last year used our frequent flier miles for 2 tickets and stayed at the royal grove hotel its old but cheap very clean and the staff is great so it was great for us. we are going back for 8 more days this year in sept we had enough ff miles for 1 more ticket so only had to pay for 1. we ate mostly cheaper meals last year except for roys one night and it was great but i wouldn%26#39;t spend that much again we don%26#39;t mind eating at budget places we do that at home. we try to fly midweek and go in the off season. with all the beauty in hawaii we don%26#39;t feel like we need the 4 or 5 star hotel and how much time are you spending in your room anyway if your doing it right your at the beach or out exploring the islands.

aloha marie

I%26#39;d really like to see the actual stats, WITH margin of error, on the drop in visitors. There are lies, d*mn lies and statistics, all of which can be made to say anything one wants.

Airfare increases were inevitable even before ATA and Aloha went under. Fares have always gone up annually. The current dramatic increase in fuel prices were bound to have significant effect.

hawaii.gov/dbedt/鈥an08.swf

BS from OP, imo.

http://www.hvcb.org/trends/index.htm

Thanks, Coastin%26#39;. Sure looks to me like visitor days are up 7.3% over last year. Total visitors up 4% over last year. Seems that fewer visitors are staying for longer periods. Makes sense, given airfare prices.

Even if the margin of error is as much as 2-3% visitor days are still up significantly.