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There are about 35,000 hotel rooms and vacation rentals on Oahu (and some tourists stay with friends). Given occupancy has been running north of 90% most of those rooms are occupied. So, at any given time there are probably 50,000+ tourists on the island.
About 4.5 million tourists visit Oahu annually. So about 375,000 per month.
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There are about 35,000 hotel rooms and vacation rentals on Oahu (and some tourists stay with friends). Given occupancy has been running north of 90% most of those rooms are occupied. So, at any given time there are probably 50,000+ tourists on the island.
35K seems low, and I'm wondering how many illegal accomodations are masquarading under the "friends" statistic. Plus, the 35K+ number would translate to about 100K bodies, given the popularity of the islands for family vacations. The numbers for Kaua'i are about 1M/y so 20K per week avg, and the Oahu infrastructure seems much larger.
Quote:
Originally Posted by whtviper1
I think you meant to "visitors". Not all visitors are tourists.
And it was 4.9 million in 2012.
5M would be roughly 5x the Kaua'i numbers, which seems about right (and inline with the 100K number above). Oahu has roughly 10 times the Kaua'i population, so that means Kaua'i has double the per-capita visitor density.
However, I'm curious how the industry classifies visitors, tourists, etc. To me those 2 are almost the same. There might be some business travelers, but the majority of those are for "conferences" (aka junkets) and with spouses, those are essentially tourists. Same thing with visitors staying with family or friends, they are 90% doing touristy things (but maybe not eating out as much). Neighbor islanders are travelling for many reasons, but maybe only 33% tourism, but are they counted as visitors (which implies "overseas") to me. I suppose the people looking at the numbers have these categories all split up for a reason, but I wonder what the real tourist activity percentage is among all arrivals.
35K seems low, and I'm wondering how many illegal accomodations are masquarading under the "friends" statistic. Plus, the 35K+ number would translate to about 100K bodies, given the popularity of the islands for family vacations. The numbers for Kaua'i are about 1M/y so 20K per week avg, and the Oahu infrastructure seems much larger.
This site says this and refers to 2011 visitor arrivals - so it is probably accurate:
Number of Visitors Annually - Approximately 4.5 million people visit Oahu each year. Of these 2.6 million are from the United States. The next largest number are from Japan. Principal Resort Areas - Most hotels and condominium units are located in Waikiki. Several resorts are scattered around the island. Number of Hotels - Approximately 74, with 30,088 rooms. Number of Vacation Condominiums - Approximately 29, with 3,407 units. Number of Bed And Breakfast Inns - 21
And as far as what makes up a visitor versus a tourist - they don't really know, although you are required to fill out the agriculture form when arriving to Hawaii - most don't - and even those that do, the questions on if you are a tourist are optional.
Last edited by whtviper1; 06-05-2013 at 04:56 PM..
Statewide, there was a total of 637,207 visitors that arrived by air in April 2013. Of those 637,207 visitors, 392,074 (or 61.5%) stayed on Oʻahu. At any particular time in April 2013, the "average daily census" of visitors that arrived by air in the entire State of Hawaiʻi was 187,357. One simply has to do the math" to figure out that the "average number of visitors that arrived by air on Oʻahu" for April 2013 was 115,225 (61.5% of 187,357).
However, instead of going to all of that trouble, it's easier to use a "shortcut" simply use the number of visitors that stayed on a cruise ship during April 2013, which was 10,846 statewide.
Thus for Oʻahu, the number of visitors that arrived by cruise ship in April 2013 was 6,670 (61.5% of 10,846).
So, the total "average number of visitors on Oʻahu" for April 2013 was 121,895 (115,225 arrived by air and another 6,670 arrived by cruise ship).
35K seems low, and I'm wondering how many illegal accomodations are masquarading under the "friends" statistic. Plus, the 35K+ number would translate to about 100K bodies, given the popularity of the islands for family vacations. The numbers for Kaua'i are about 1M/y so 20K per week avg, and the Oahu infrastructure seems much larger.
According to the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority, the total "visitor plant inventory" on Oʻahu in 2012 was officially 35,126 units. Of these 35,126 units, 26,186 were "hotel units", 4,887 were "condos", 2,529 were "timeshares", 1,051 were "individual vacation units" (privately-owned condos, houses, villas, etc. that aren't part of a hotel rental operation), 217 were "hostel units", 169 were "apartment/hotel units", 57 were "bed and breakfast units", and 30 were "other units." Here's a link to the official "2012 Visitor Plant Inventory" report. http://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/visito...nt/2012VPI.pdf
Quote:
Originally Posted by KauaiHiker
However, I'm curious how the industry classifies visitors, tourists, etc. To me those 2 are almost the same. There might be some business travelers, but the majority of those are for "conferences" (aka junkets) and with spouses, those are essentially tourists. Same thing with visitors staying with family or friends, they are 90% doing touristy things (but maybe not eating out as much). Neighbor islanders are travelling for many reasons, but maybe only 33% tourism, but are they counted as visitors (which implies "overseas") to me. I suppose the people looking at the numbers have these categories all split up for a reason, but I wonder what the real tourist activity percentage is among all arrivals.
However, instead of going to all of that trouble, it's easier to use a "shortcut" simply use the number of visitors that stayed on a cruise ship during April 2013, which was 10,846 statewide.
Thus for Oʻahu, the number of visitors that arrived by cruise ship in April 2013 was 6,670 (61.5% of 10,846).
Dunno for sure, but it seems to me that your calc might be off. The table you quoted was for arrivals by air. The cruise ship numbers are listed at the bottom under accommodations, not transportation. This can be attributed to the fact that many people fly to Hawai'i, board a cruise ship for a week long tour of the four major islands, then fly home, enjoying something like this Norwegian Cruise Lines' "Four Islands in Seven Days" itinerary. Hawaiian Cruise Deals | Hawaiian Cruise Vacation Packages
According to the stats, these folks who fly in to take a cruise also typically stay in a hotel or other accommodations in Hawai'i at the beginning or end of their cruise. In the 2011 Visitor report you linked to, the percentage of people doing that was 60.3%. So it seems to me that leaves 39.7% arriving by cruise ship, such as on one of the sailings from the West Coast.
In other news, an interesting difference to me between cruise passengers and other tourists is that while many strictly air travelers fly and out of the same destination island, or route to a single destination island via Honolulu, a large percentage of the cruise customers visit more than one island, often four. My guess is that the only ones that don't are just stopping at Honolulu on their way to Tahiti and the South Pacific.
Quote:
By the nature of the cruise routes, most passengers went to the four largest islands. Nearly all
(99.8%) of the cruise passengers visited O‘ahu, 96.2 percent visited Maui, 96.2 percent visited
Hawai‘i Island and 91.6 percent visited Kaua‘i. In addition to their cruise itinerary, 4,504
passengers visited Lāna‘i and 3,089 visited Moloka‘i. http://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/visito...al-visitor.pdf
Dunno for sure, but it seems to me that your calc might be off. The table you quoted was for arrivals by air. The cruise ship numbers are listed at the bottom under accommodations, not transportation. This can be attributed to the fact that many people fly to Hawai'i, board a cruise ship for a week long tour of the four major islands, then fly home, enjoying something like this Norwegian Cruise Lines' "Four Islands in Seven Days" itinerary. Hawaiian Cruise Deals | Hawaiian Cruise Vacation Packages
According to the stats, these folks who fly in to take a cruise also typically stay in a hotel or other accommodations in Hawai'i at the beginning or end of their cruise. In the 2011 Visitor report you linked to, the percentage of people doing that was 60.3%. So it seems to me that leaves 39.7% arriving by cruise ship, such as on one of the sailings from the West Coast.
In other news, an interesting difference to me between cruise passengers and other tourists is that while many strictly air travelers fly and out of the same destination island, or route to a single destination island via Honolulu, a large percentage of the cruise customers visit more than one island, often four. My guess is that the only ones that don't are just stopping at Honolulu on their way to Tahiti and the South Pacific.
As you'll see, my original "quick and lazy way" of calculating the average number of visitors on Oʻahu is fairly accurate or at least "good enough for government work."
Here's the relevant data from the "April 2013 Arrivals at a Glance" table...
Total Visitor Arrivals: 666,959
Total Visitor Arrivals by Air: 637,207
Total Visitor Arrivals by Cruise Ship: 29,752
Here's the relevant data from the "April 2013 Island Highlights" table...
Total Visitor Arrivals by Air -- Oʻahu: 392,074
Hereʻs the relevant data from the "Visitors by Cruise Ships" table...
Total Visitors: 38,551
Total Visitors that Arrived by Cruise Ship: 29,752
Total Visitors that Arrived by Air: 8,799
Islands Visited -- Oʻahu: 38,551
Next, letʻs look at how the "Average Daily Census" was calculated...
From the "Total Visitors by Air" table...
Visitor Days: 5,620,720
Average Daily Census: 187,357
Number of Days in April 2013: 30
Average Daily Census = Visitor Days/Number of Days in April 2013 = 187,357
From the "Visitors by Cruise Ship" table...
Visitor Days: 261,745
Unfortunately, that 261,745 days figure also includes cruise ship visitors that arrived by air, so let's do a little math here. Of the 38,551 "visitors by cruise ship", 8,779 of them or 22.8% arrived by air. If we subtract that 22.8% from the 261,745 "visitor days" number, we get 202,067 (which represents the total visitor days of visitors that arrived by cruise ship only).
Next, we apply the "Average Daily Census" formula to the 202,067 visitor days number and we get 6,736, which is the "average daily census" of visitors that arrived by cruise ship.
Thus, the total "Average Daily Census" for visitors that arrived by air and cruise ship for the entire State of Hawaiʻi is 187,357 + 6,736 or 194,093.
Now, let's look at the visitors to Oʻahu...
Total Visitor Arrivals: 666,959
Total Visitor Arrivals by Air -- Oʻahu: 392,074
Total Visitors that Arrived by Cruise Ship: 29,752
Since every cruise ship to Hawaiʻi stopped at Oʻahu, we can use the statewide 29,752 visitor number. Thus, the total number of visitor arrivals on Oʻahu is 392,074 + 29,752 or 421,826. Dividing the number of visitor arrivals on Oʻahu (421,826) by the total number of visitor arrivals (666,959) yields 63.25%.
If we multiply the total "Average Daily Census" (194,093) by 63.25%, we get 122,764, which is the "Average Daily Census" of visitors on Oʻahu.
Ironically, my original "quick and lazy way" of calculating the "average number of visitors on Oʻahu" for April 2013 yielded an answer of 121,895, which was only off by 869 or 0.71%.
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