Originally Posted by Sydny
Now Slippahs! How can you discount the Hilo Tribune Herald, and the West Hawaii Today, when they loudly herald the fact that the Big Island hotels are maxed out from about 12/15 to 4/1???? Are you just checking the Oahu HCVB? When all the islands were checked, the statistical advantage leaned heavily to the Big Island. Speaking of air fares, I just tried to make arrangements from ITO to ROC, and it's about $3500(F). Last summer I was able to fly for $1800(F)! I'll give you the name of my summertime agent, and you give me the name of your wintertime agent, and we'll both make out like bandits....hee, hee!!
Interesting. However, the data I've looked at encompasses the whole state as a whole between 1993-October 2005. So, it discounts this past winter in consideration. Local results may also vary. Also, hotels being maxed out on the Big Island tell little about the actual amount of tourists visiting the state. The hotel occupany rate for the Big Island in June, July and August of 2004 were 70.9%, 78.5% and 77.8% (respectively) compared to the occupany rates for December, January '05 and February '05, which were 61.1%, 75.5% and 76.4%. Also, if we look at the total number of visitors to the Islands in the summer compared to the winter of the same period, we see that June '04 (616,023 visitors), July '04 (683,006) and August '04 (645,543) bring more visitors to the state alone than the winter months of December '04 (622,433), January '05 (599,957) and February '05 (573,212). Despite this small sample, expanding this to other years shows a similar trend: that summer months bring in more visitors to the state than winter months. Believe me, I've had to do my homework on this.