Traveling to Hawaii on the cheap

Nationwide, the tourism picture looks bleak, as the number of travelers is expected to fall throughout 2009, according to the Travel Industry Association of America.

In the Aloha State, the smaller, more remote islands like Lana’i and Moloka’i are feeling the most pain. They received about a third fewer visitors in January than the year before.

“This is a downturn,” said Mark B. Dunkerly, who sits on the board of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii and is CEO of Hawaiian Airlines. Dunkerly explained that the decline in visitors may be troubling, but the numbers are still as strong as they were a decade ago. “It’s not a catastrophe. The clock has been wound back.”

Signs of decline for Hawaii began last spring with the shutdown of Aloha and ATA Airlines, which held about a fifth of the market share. By the summer, fuel prices had skyrocketed to $135 a barrel, which drove fares to an unaffordable price point for many travelers.

That same year, NCL Corp.’s Norwegian Cruise Lines pulled back stops to Hawaii.

Rob Pacheco, the president of Hawaii Forest & Trail, said he noticed about 3,000 fewer customers after some of the cruise ships stopped coming. The company, which gives natural tours of the island, said things “just kind of deteriorated, and it was more difficult to fill seats.”

Another challenge Hawaii faces in terms of tourism is its remote location on an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. This makes the state’s tourism industry highly dependent on airfare prices.

Traditionally, economical travelers shy away from Hawaii because of the high flight cost, travel experts said. But the airfare prices being offered until June show that prices may be more affordable than most leisure travelers think.

A flight from Boston, Massachusetts, on Delta, United or American Airlines is running about $461 round trip, down from $610 at the same time last year, according to FareCompare.com. Travelers from major West Coast cities such as Los Angeles, California, can find flights just under $340, nearly 30 percent off the ticket price from a year ago, the site reported.

Adding to the vacation savings are hotels, including lavish resorts, advertising rates about 20 percent lower in the first quarter of 2009 compared with first-quarter 2008, according to online travel companies.

Hotels scrambled to offer lower rates when they saw occupancy numbers dive for the first time in years. Hotels say that in addition to the discount on the rooms, there are perks and added value such as upgrades, free nights and dinner coupons, travel experts say.

For example, Outrigger Hotels and Resorts, owned by Outrigger Enterprises Group, is offering the third night free for travelers who book a stay in Waikiki this month for $159 a night. A year ago, the lowest the rate at the hotel was nearly $100 more.

“You can travel better than you have in the past for the same amount of money,” said Ian Jeffries, an Expedia travel expert. “Or you could do the exact same thing as last year and save money.”

Travelers can also snatch bargains at condos and rental properties. This is particularly true on the islands of Maui and Oahu, where there has been major development in recent years, says Pauline Frommer, a guidebook author who started the budget travel Web site Frommers.com.

“You can play ‘let’s make a deal’ with these folks,” said Frommer, who has been tracking the travel industry for almost 20 years. “They are for desperate for people’s business.”

But don’t expect the deals to paradise to last forever. Prices will climb during peak summer season and as soon as the economy recovers. Though experts are unsure when recovery will happen, Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism predicts that won’t be until 2011.

In the meantime, Hawaii tourism groups want to change American and international travelers’ impression that a trip there is too expensive. With Japan suffering from its own economic woes, arrivals of Japanese tourists, once a steady revenue stream, have slowed, travel experts said.

“The difficulty is the fact that it’s not a Hawaii-centered problem,” said John Monahan, president of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau. “We have a nationwide and global crisis.”