HONOLULU (KHON2) — Visitor numbers to Hawaiʻi are holding steady, but one industry is feeling the slowdown — weddings.
Some of the businesses we spoke to say bookings are down, especially for clients from Japan.
Kana and Fumiya Akahori are here from Japan for a babymoon. They couldn’t think of a better place to celebrate.
“It’s so beautiful in Hawaiʻi with the ocean and scenery,” said Fumiya Akahori, a visitor from Japan. “It’s a very special place.”
But visitors like them are coming less often. According to the latest figures from the state, total visitors are up so far this year compared to last. But visitors coming to get married, on a honeymoon, or both are all down.
John Chisholm has been taking wedding pictures for about 8 years now. He says business is down at times half as much as before COVID.
“It really oscilates now,” said John Chisholm, Toes in the Sand photography. “It doesn’t follow any pattern that it used to follow pre-COVID. Now you really can’t tell, you could have a busy month, a slow month, it’s not following any of the calendar.”
We spoke to several wedding coordinators off-camera. None of them could be specific on one simple reason for the slowdown, but they mentioned a couple of things.
One, fewer Japanese visitors means fewer Japanese weddings. And two, cost. With the price of everything in Hawaiʻi seemingly going up from hotels to airfare to food, they just feel like these couples are spending their wedding money on something else, or somewhere else.
“Tourists that comes from Japan is a really high quality visitor,” said Chisholm. “They tend to spend a lot of money, tend to do a lot, so I’d like to see it continue. It’s a good thing for Hawaiʻi. It’s a good thing for Japan.”
It was a pretty busy day at Ala Moana Beach Park with several couples taking pictures throughout the day, showing that Hawaiʻi is still the place for a destination wedding.
“Pictures are nice and then the amenities that go along with it,” said Chisholm. “Hawaiʻi’s such a great place to come and have a honeymoon afterwards. And I think that’s one of the reasons why people come here.”
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And hopefully, the reason why they come back.
“Yes we hope to come back very soon,” said Akahori.