Hawaii still travel agent heavy

Hawaii still travel agent heavy

Hawaii Tourism has reported that 63.5% of bookings to Hawaii are made through a travel agent.

“Trade is still crucial and it’s dropping incrementally each year but by a small number,” Hawaii Tourism Organisation country manager Ashlee Galea said.

Five years ago travel agents represented approximately 70% of transactions.

Interestingly, over the last three years there has not been a growth in online travel bookings. OTA bookings have remained flat at 15%.

In the first quarter of 2015 Australian travellers to the destination went up 21.5% year on year and while the visitation figures increase every year, last year marked a reduction in growth.

“Last year was our flattening out year,” Galea said.

As part of an annual trade visit to Australia, Galea said that market share from Australia to Hawaii faces competition from Bali, Fiji and Thailand.

But with both Bali and Thailand suffering from an image crisis of late, Galea underlined that Hawaii is seen as a safe destination.

“I think we might be stealing some market share from Thailand,” Galea said.

Some of the key trends for Australian visitors are shopping, honeymoons and neighbouring island visitation.

There is also high repeat visitation, with 55% first time travellers and 45% repeats.

Australians are spending less time overall in Hawaii, which Galea attributed to the weakening dollar.

While conceding that further softening of the dollar was a challenge, HTO said they were not too concerned.

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