Japanese Visitor Arrivals Surging

Japanese visitor arrivals have been surging since March 2012, according to statistics provided by the Hawaii State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

The agency’s seven-day moving average shows visitor traffic from Japan tracking significantly higher than in 2011. Year-over-year growth in Japanese visitors peaked in mid-April, increasing more than 50% when compared to the prior year, and international arrivals improved as a whole over the last three months.

Hawaii’s Tourism Authority recently reported increases in Japanese visitor spending, with guest expenditures rising 25.3% between March 2011 and March 2012. The Big Island saw total arrivals from all destinations rise 8.2% in the first quarter of 2012, and total spending rise 9.2%.

The increase in visitors from Japan coincides with a post-disaster economic recovery in the country, with the Japanese government reporting a 1% increase in economic growth for the first three months of 2012. Japan had seen its quarterly economic growth fall 2% in the same period last year following a devastating combination of earthquakes and tsunamis.

Japan’s first quarter growth was roughly double that of the United States, where the economy grew 0.5% during the same period of time.

Japanese visitor arrivals. Chart courtesy of Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism.