Hawaiʻi tourism officials remain cautious about the outlook for the fall season. But elsewhere in the Pacific, several locations are seeing steady or increasing demand.
When it comes to international travel, the United Nations takes a broad view — and it sees some of the strongest figures coming from Asia. In the first half of this year, Vietnam, Japan and South Korea all saw growth of 15% to 20% in tourist arrivals.
That's according to a report this week from the UN World Tourism Barometer, which tracks statistics around the globe.
The strength in the Asia Pacific is not only for travel destinations, but also as a growing source of tourists, with rising outbound spending from China and Singapore to South Korea.
There are complications for certain markets.
Thailand has experienced a drop in visitors from China and other major Asian markets, to the point where the Bangkok Post reports several major hotels are cutting their prices.
A recent study shows a different kind of regional tourism power.
The Japanese advertising giant Dentsu surveyed people from 20 economies who have traveled to multiple countries and asked what country theyʻd most like to visit again.
Japan was the answer for more than half of those surveyed, the next mention was South Korea at 20% and the United States at about 17%.
