Hawaii Visitor Spending Down

Despite Hanalei town being crowded with tourist, Hawaii visitor spending is down by 15.9% in February according to an article titled Tourist numbers and spending down by Allison Schaefers of the Star Bulletin. This low is most likely fueled by 12.7% decline in visitors during the same month which has not been seen since 1991.

The funny thing is, I know several Kauai vacation companies that are flourishing during this recession period. And I even know a statewide company that is doing better then they were during this same time last year.

What I’m seeing are a bunch of companies whose first reponse to this recession is to cut back on their marketing, when what they should really be doing is increasing their advertising budgets to gain greater market share.

This is the tactic being used by the Kauai businesses that continue to do well despite this so called decline in visitor spending.

I personally have several Hawaii based business and they’re all doing better then ever. This is all doom and gloom media bull to me. If things are so bad, how come I have to wait 45 minutes in line at Bubba’s just to get a burger?