Hawaii has earthquake-related tourism damage

Blame it on images of earthquake-damaged buildings and hotels without power: Hawaii’s tourism arrivals are down.

Their numbers fell 4.2% in October, according to a recent report.

Earthquakes and a blackout in that month hurt an already softening visitors market, said travel executives.

Convention bookings were also down.

“The earthquake impact contributed to it but wasn’t necessarily a key contributor,” said Starwood Hotels & Resorts spokesman David Uchiyama. An overall softening of the market and the lack of available airline seats also played a role in the decline, Mr Uchiyama said.

Even with the drop in October visitors, however, he state is only 0.3 percent below last year’s record pace for arrivals through the first 10 months of the year.

News of the earthquakes with magnitudes of 6.7 and 6.0 obviously concerned some travelers.

Report by David Wilkening