Article Photos

Maui hotel occupancies dropped to 55.8 percent in September.

The bad news was that the rates at the major resorts were low even for September, always a slack month. West Maui occupancy was 62.4 percent, a slight increase from the 60.2 percent of September 2008. Wailea was 55.8 percent, a slight decrease from 56.8 percent the year before. The worse news was that the rest of Maui dropped to 48.2 percent. Hostelries less than half full are a fact of life on the Big Island but almost unheard of on Maui.

Terryl Vencl, executive director of the Maui Visitors Bureau, said, "People are frightened about joblessness; people are frightened about the stock market," and until that changes, she does not foresee any definite upturn.

"One month of good results won't do it," she said. Potential customers are going to want to see some consistency in the rebound before they venture forth again.

She said that in the past three months of heavy touring to market the islands, the desire to visit Maui is evident. "People want to move, they want to come."

Joseph Toy, president of Hospitality Advisors, which publishes the voluntary monthly survey, said, "It is notable that despite the fall in the market, we continue to remain competitive both in the U.S. market as well as other island destinations."

As has been the case for more than a year now, all the Neighbor Islands fared poorly. Kauai took a big drop from 67.0 percent to 58.7 percent, and the Big Island a small one from 49.9 percent to 49.5 percent.

The pricey resorts on the Kohala Coast were less than half full at 47.5 percent.

Nevertheless, the statewide occupancy rate showed a slight uptick - the first in 18 months - because Oahu's rate rose to 74.7 percent from 69.4 percent in September 2008.

Toy said, "The losses that Hawaii's industry has had to absorb over the past 20 months have been unprecedented. While the losses have been steep, we should keep in mind that the global recession has had a tremendous impact not only on Hawaii's visitor industry, but as well on its primary competitors."

Smith Travel Research, which compiles the reports for Hospitality Advisors, reported that Oahu had the best occupancy rate among top island resorts, besting Bali, Puerto Rico, Guam, Aruba, the Cayman Islands and the Maldives.

Because of sharp discounting, Hawaii resorts looked like bargains, too.

The Maldives is a special case, with an average daily rate of $681, but even Maui - still the most expensive island in Hawaii - comes in under the Caymans, French Polynesia and the Bahamas, which range between $263 and $294.

Maui has averaged $236 this year, down from an average of $277 last year. In September, the average room rate on Maui was $196. That was a sharp discount compared with the average of $229 the year before, although Wailea dropped prices even faster, from $346 last September to $288 this September.

The key figure, RevPAR (revenue per available room) has taken a beating, because of the combination of low sales and low prices.

Maui's RevPAR was down $19 to $109. Kauai was down $25 to $101, and the Big Island was down less than a dollar, but to $80 - a number otherwise seen only on Molokai. (Molokai is not reported separately in the Hospitality Advisors Flash Report.)

Even Oahu, buoyed somewhat by a big dentists convention and Silver Week (a good period for visitors from Japan), saw RevPAR decline $2 to $108.

Toy predicted continuing losses into next year, although perhaps narrowing. He hopes for a "sustainable recovery" starting next summer. Vencl is somewhat more wary, not expecting any real bounce back until 2011.

For the first nine months of 2009, statewide hotel revenues were down by $455 million to $1.84 billion, a fall of almost 20 percent. That is just room revenue. When the fall in food, beverage and retailing income is counted, the shortfall rises to $682 million compared with January-September 2008.

The visitor industry began shrinking in April 2008 (when Aloha and ATA airlines shut down and the national financial markets began trembling). Since then, the total hotel revenue in the islands has come up $1.1 billion short of what would have been expected had the boom period of 2007 continued.

By that measure, September was the best month since May 2008, with a shortfall from "typical" of only $18.1 million. And by that measure, the deepest point of the crisis was passed in March this year, when the shortfall topped $120 million.

* Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com.