Skift Take
Hawaii will definitely get in on the boom in travelers from Asia. The islands have lots to offer, but competition will be intense. With hotel rates soaring, hoteliers in Hawaii may come to realise that they may have to temper their rate hikes rather than make up for the 2007 recession in one fell swoop.
Mike McCartney, CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, brings a spreadsheet to the interview, as promised, so he can break down the expected economic impact of Hawaiian Airlines' new three-times-per week Honolulu-Beijing direct flights.
We're standing at a cocktail table April 17 at the Westin Beijing Chaoyang just outside an event to mark Hawaiian Airlines' inaugural flight that morning, and McCartney has all the pertinent figures at the ready on the paper.
Let's see: Those expected 45,864 seats per year at a 75% load factor would translate into $81.06 million in direct visitor spending, $134.32 million in sales (direct, indirect and induced), and $8.47 million in state government tax revenue.
The statistics all feed into what McCartney, a former Democratic state senator who's led the organization for the past five years, describes as HTA's pivot to Asia to balance out and grow Hawaii's visitor mix, and to build the state's meetings' and incentives' business.
With hotel rates and airfares in Hawaii on the rise, the HTA recently lowered its visitors' estimate for 2014, and like airlines, hotels and tourism boards around the world, the HTA is looking to Asia, and t
