Tourism on Hawaii's Big Island Grows More Diverse

Image: PHOTO: Big Island, Hawaii. (photo courtesy of Thinkstock)

by Janeen Christoff
Last updated: 1:00 PM ET, Wed January 18, 2017

Visitors to Hawaii's Big Island are becoming more diverse, a new report in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald shows. While visitors from Japan and the mainland U.S. are still coming in great numbers, tourism is growing from South Korea and Taiwan.

"New players are starting to emerge in Hawaii Island's international tourism game, as 2016 saw a noticeable increase in arrivals and expenditures from South Korean and Taiwanese visitors," writes Ivy Ashe.

These new numbers are the result of a push from the Hawaii Tourism Authority to build a greater diversity among visitors.

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"The Hawaii Tourism Authority has been 'strategically looking at developing international markets to diversify the visitor mix,' director of marketing Jadie Goo tells the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.

Visitors from Korea have increased the most over the last year as the Hawaii Visitors Bureau has made an effort to attract more visitors from South Korea through "tourism missions" to the country.

"The Korean market has leaned towards Maui as its go-to because they do have the (well-known) golf courses," Ross Birch, executive director of the Island of Hawaii Visitors Bureau, told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. "Now they're starting to become aware that our golf properties are that quality as well."

For more on the diversification of tourism to the Big Island, read on here.

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