The Timeshare Beat: County’s tourist count off in August

County’s tourist count off in August

By HARRY EAGAR

Staff Writer - Maui News
October 1, 2000
Tourism numbers for Hawaii continued growing at a record pace in August, although Maui County’s head count was down 4.2 percent at 206,888.

The decline was only relative. August 1999 was extraordinary, with more than 216,000 visitors estimated to have stopped on Maui. Any month over 200,000 is considered a good one.

Kauai also registered a decline, of 2 percent, but it also had had an extraordinary August in 1999.

For the state as a whole, visits were up 1.8 percent to 635,526. For the first eight months, the gain is 4.2 percent to 4.77 million.

The state continues on a pace that will produce its first 7-million-visitor year, according to the data.

For the first eight months, Maui County has welcomed 1,570,249 visitors, a decline of 0.1 percent compared to 1999.

However, local managers are disputing the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau figures.

On Lanai, in particular, HVCB is reporting double digit drops in the head count. Although August was an exception, with HVCB reporting a gain of 0.7 percent at 6,382 , the estimate for the year for Lanai is down 17.6 percent.

According to the Lanai Co., business is better than ever this year.

The precise figure remains in dispute, but HVCB has begun to note: “Sample sizes for Molokai and Lanai are relatively small.”

Although the head-count numbers are presented as if each head was tallied, in practice HVCB operates by statistical sampling. The smaller the sample, the greater the range of uncertainty.

What is not in dispute is that tourism is thriving.

The count of visitor-days has grown for seven straight months, to 5.5 million in August and 42.6 million since the first of the year. Airlines have increased capacity steadily this year, growing by 4.1 percent in August.

The Big Island showed the largest growth in head count in August, up 3.3 percent to 113,230.

Oahu was next, up 1.7 percent to 434,690.

Kauai, down 2 percent, had 98,209 visitors. Molokai had 4,755, down 12.9 percent.

The HVCB also samples visitors on their plans for shelter. In August, 411,000 planned to stay in hotels only, 110,000 in condominiums only, 22,000 in timeshares only, 6,400 on cruise ships, 48,000 with friends and relatives, 6,400 in bed-and-breakfasts and 17,000 in “other.”