HONOLULU, Hawaii - Average hotel room prices hit an all-time high in Hawaii in August as tourist spending rose and visits from Japan, Korea, China and other markets spiked, a tourism analysis firm said Wednesday.
Honolulu-based Hospitality Advisors LLC said in its monthly hotel industry report that hotel rooms in Hawaii cost nearly $215 per night in August, up 10.2 per cent compared with the same month last year. The rates led to an August record of nearly $308 million in room revenue.
Total revenue for the 163 properties included in the report was just under $455 million, the report said. The hotels represented in the report make up nearly 86 per cent of all hotels in Hawaii with at least 20 rooms.
Joseph Toy, chief executive of Hospitality Advisors, said Hawaii's tourism recovery has been led by Oahu, the state's most popular island for tourists.
"The revenue records set in August caps a remarkable 2012 summer season for Hawaii's hotel industry," Toy said. "Given that we were at the bottom of the market just 30 months ago makes this recovery even more outstanding."
The Hawaii Tourism Authority said visitor spending was up 14.6 per cent for the month.
The number of visitors from Japan climbed nearly 13 per cent compared with August 2011, the report said. Other international markets — which are tracked all together but consist primarily of visitors from China, Korea and Australia — had an even larger spike, increasing by nearly 28 per cent.
Hotel occupancy statewide rose 4 percentage points to 81.3 per cent. Occupancy was 90 per cent in Oahu, 75 per cent in Maui and nearly 74 per cent in Kauai. Nightly rates were highest in Maui at just over $263 per night.
The report said Hawaii set a new summer season record of $880.5 million in room revenue from June through August. Total revenue for the summer was $1.3 billion.
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Oskar Garcia can be reached at http://twitter.com/oskargarcia .
