Study says marathon pumped $107 million into Hawaii economyHONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - A study
conducted by Hawaii Pacific University concluded that the 39th Honolulu
Marathon generated $107.6 million in spending and $5.01 million in taxes.
The report was based on 1,887
interviews of marathon participants between Dec. 8 and Dec. 10, 2011, at the
Honolulu Marathon Expo.
Of those interviews, 1,323 were done
in Japanese.
"The yen was at a 25-year high
vs. the U.S. dollar," said Professor Jerry Agrusa of the HPU Travel
Industry Management Dept. Agrusa led the impact study group for the 11th year
in a row.
Agrusa said his surveyors found that
another reason for the increase was a renewed appreciation of life itself by
Japanese visitors. Their country's catastrophic earthquake and tsunami seemed
to motivate them to "stay longer, spend more money and enjoy life in
Hawaii," according to Agrusa.
The study found a 13.3 percent increase
in the Japanese runners' length of stay. Participants from Japan spent $344.67
per day, a slight increases over 2010.
Of the 22,615 Honolulu Marathon
registrants, 12,359 were from Japan, 1,367 from the U.S. Mainland and 688 were
from countries other than the Japan.
Registrants from Japan accounted for
more than 85.7 percent of all registered runners from outside of Hawaii. Agrusa said that when asked how likely the
participants are to recommend Hawaii as a travel destination to others, 97.8
percent of those interviewed answered "very likely" or
"likely," with only percent stating that they were
"unsure." None of the nearly
1,887 respondents answered "unlikely."
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