Tourist numbers up a bit last month

Maui County's visitor count ticked up by 1.8 percent in September to 134,932, but deep discounting by lodging providers and price cutting by other vendors drove per person per day spending down by 4.9 percent to $167.

Statewide, the head count was up 7.2 percent to 494,376, but spending was down to $171 per person, down from $186 in the depressed month of September 2008.

The fact that Maui island's average spending was lower than the state average was a dramatic indicator of just how deeply island hoteliers are slashing their rates. In normal times, Maui has by far the highest average hotel rates. Maui's spread over Oahu in spending is narrower than the hotel rate, because Oahu generates more retail sales to tourists, but usually Maui leads in overall visitor income.

It still leads the Neighbor Islands. For September, the per person per day spending totals were $180 on Oahu, $159 on Kauai and $148 on the Big Island.

By far the highest spending average is $273 on Lanai. The lowest is $134 on Molokai.

The smaller islands, unlike Maui, again saw big drops in head count. Molokai welcomed 3,545 visitors, off 22.4 percent (and off 33.7 percent for the year). Lanai welcomed 4,689 visitors, off 15.3 percent (and off 26.5 percent for the year).

September is typically the least-busy month of the year, and Maui island saw only 134,932 tourists last month.

The numbers were published by the Hawaii Tourism Authority on Tuesday, using statistics gathered by the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

Oahu continues to outpace the Neighbor Islands. While overall spending was down 9.7 percent to $161 million on Maui, and down by 12.9 percent to $80.2 million on Hawaii; it rose 1.2 percent to $412.4 million on Oahu. Kauai spending was up 4.4 percent to $76.1 million.

That put Kauai neck and neck with the Big Island for total visitor industry turnover, although it gained only 2 percent in head count to 71,796, while the Big Island jumped 9.6 percent to 86,138. The combined Kauai-Hawaii head count total was 157,934.

That's another sign of how the depression has roiled the relative positions of the Hawaii visitor industry. In ordinary times, Maui usually draws as many tourists as Kauai and Hawaii County combined.

Despite discounting, Maui's generally higher price levels are working against it in today's business climate, while Waikiki, which in better times takes a back seat, is almost booming.

Arrivals on Oahu were up 11.5 percent to 327,871 in September, though they are down 5.5 percent for the year. Oahu's numbers in September benefitted from nearly 24,000 delegates taking part in the American Dental Association's 150th annual convention in Honolulu.

International arrivals were up 10.4 percent to 141,608, and if the yen rises as much as some money market analysts are predicting, that should help Waikiki even more. In September, residents of Japan enjoyed their Silver Week holiday, which is created by three national holidays and a weekend. Visitors from Japan were up 16.7 percent. Arrivals by air from Canada, Hawaii's fourth major market, dropped by 0.8 percent.

International arrivals amount to less than 10 percent of Maui's visitors, and they were down 14 percent in September.

For the first nine months of 2009, Hawaii welcomed 4.9 million visitors, a 5.8 percent decrease from the same period last year. Total spending by visitors arriving by air from January through September amounted to 7.4 billion, which was a $1.3 billion, or 14.6 percent, decline from the same period last year.

The detailed compilation, including breakdown by market areas, can be found at www.hawaiitourismauthority.org/monthly_stats.

* The Associated Press contributed to this story. Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com.