Hawaiian helps put Hawaii back on Aussie agenda

Hawaiian helps put Hawaii back on Aussie agenda
By admin


Hawaii’s resurgence as one of Australia’s most popular holiday destinations is largely due to Hawaiian Airlines’ efforts in the local market, says its chief executive Mark Dunkerley.

Despite a number of challenges, recent years have seen Hawaii climb the ranks of Australian holiday hotspots to now sit alongside the likes of Bali, Thailand and Fiji.

In 2002, Hawaii attracted just 92,000 Australians, but by 2013 had risen to nearly 306,000 – more than triple the number which Dunkerley attributes partly to Hawaiian’s entry to the Australian market in 2004.

“If you go back a little bit in time before 747-400 flights between Australia and the US, all came via Hawaii. So Hawaii was a popular destination, there was plenty of service and people were used to getting off the plane,” Dunkerley toldTravel Today.

“As soon as long haul aircraft came in all the attention shifted to the US mainland and Hawaii just went off agenda for airlines, travel agents and really for everybody.

“It took Hawaiian coming into market in 2004 to start reminding people that Hawaii existed.”

Now, Aussies are flocking to the former “forgotten destination”, buoyed by the recent strength of the Australian dollar. But even as that wanes, Dunkerley is unfazed.

“It’s clearly something we are watching,” he said. But he stressed the major impact of the foreign exchange shift will mainly be seen in the US dollar value of its Australian revenue.

“But it hasn’t really dented demand,” he continued. “While the Australian dollar was particularly strong, a lot of people started travelling again, and even though now the dollar has weakened, they’ve nonetheless built that into the expectation of their lives and they want to keep travelling.”

A trend towards people taking more, shorter trips is also working to the destination’s advantage with it ideally suited for breaks in the range of five to six nights. Ease of travelling around and its offer of several islands for Australians to explore also heightens its appeal.

However, Dunkerley admitted the outlook is not entirely problem-free, highlighting Hawaii’s comparatively small marketing budget as a concern.

“We’re a state that is extremely heavily dependent on tourism and because we’re part of the larger structure of the US, it means our ability to raise money to go and sell Hawaii as a destination is much more limited than competing destinations that we see around the world,” he said.

“It’s a good thing that Hawaii has, over the years, achieved such a great reputation and to a degree it sells itself but we would certainly benefit from more tourism funding at federal level and at the local level.”

 

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