Almost 2 years ago I seemed to be writing about how great the discounts were to fly to and stay in Hawaii almost monthly. The dire monthly occupancy reports got so bad that I simply stopped writing about the same bad news (for them) eventually.
But I keep my eye on that market, especially given we are a West Coast hotel with many departures to Hawaii and when Hawaii suffers, so does our business.
At long last, the inklings of a recovery in Hawaii are becoming evident, as seen from the eyes of this article:Hotel, Arrivals Show Signs of Recovery. Coming from a Hawaiian New blog, it reports that hotels are now beginning to be 80% full and that is quite a jump from the mid 60 %'s they were reporting last summer. And while that is good for them, it means no more bargains for us.
Airlines (which were previously cutting capacity to Hawaii) are now adding planes and routes for 2010. Early bookings seem to show a strong season ahead for the Islands. Which means a change in strategy for those who cannot be flexible on dates and can look for last minute sales. In fact, I spoke with a couple who extended their recent stay in Hawaii by a few days (they were having too much fun to leave) and the gentleman told me it cost somewhere around $400 to change his tickets at the last minute, And thi sis in February (though it was near Presidents Day). I can only guess that by summer, we could easily see a rate of $800 per person again to fly to Hawaii.
So you may not want to wait for a sale and you may want to lock in your dates early. In combination if the fact that the economy is slowly recovering, the tourism indistry in Hawaii may be soon rejoicing - and at OUR expense.
Comments