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| Hawaii Island tourists on a cruise |
Merrie Monarch is over in Hilo and the spring break season
has come to an end. This time of year on Hawaii Island the beaches are
mostly empty and the tourists and part-time residents are thinning out; but
not this year. This year there has been no end to the crowds, traffic,
and beaches packed with tourists.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) forecasted a
record-setting year of visitor arrivals across Hawaii for 2015. They attribute
the increase to more flights to the islands from the US mainland.
Hawaiian Airlines reported that they transported more than 887,000 people to
Hawaii in March, a 7% increase from March of last year. HTA reports that
visitors to Hawaii are up 8% from the West Coast and 9.8% from the East
Coast.
Usually our condo complex is empty by mid-April. This year
it is as crowed as it was at Christmas time.
Every condo has a visiting family, the traffic is the heaviest we have
ever seen, and the nearby stores and restaurants are packed. Though we
hear many visitors speaking German, Italian and eastern European languages,
most of the visitors are from North America speaking English. Surprisingly, the large number of Japanese
tourists we see this time of year are not here.
Every evening we sit on the crowded beach and watch families, primarily
from the US, throwing balls, snorkeling, running, playing in the sand, and
enjoying the beach with seemingly endless energy.
Having a huge surge of visitors is a boon to Hawaii
Island. The island has limited job opportunities and an improvement in
the tourist industry on the island would not only provide more jobs but
hopefully increase pay for the mostly minimum wage service workers. On
the other hand, the hotels, restaurants, and tour companies are not staffed for
the current demand. We are seeing overwhelmed workers having a
difficult time keeping their cool with endless lines of impatient people
wanting to get on with their vacations.
If visitors to Hawaii Island have a great time, they will
likely return. Hawaii Island is less densely populated per square mile
than Oahu, Maui, and Kauai with average home prices 50% lower. Returning
visitors could ultimately increase island real estate prices which have taken a
big dive since 2008 and improve the island economy.
