California sends more people to Hawaii than any other state, and there’s one city that Hawaii is courting more over others. Out of the 6.8 million people who visited the Islands in 2021, 2.7 million of them were California residents. Of these residents, more of them are visiting Hawaii from the Bay Area than from anywhere else.
In the first four months of 2023, there were 277,418 Bay Area residents who traveled to Hawaii, according to a preliminary visitor statistics report by the Hawaii State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. The data is collected from the State of Hawaii agricultural forms passed out on flights.
Residents of Los Angeles are the next largest group of people to travel to Hawaii at 258,153. That Los Angeles, a West Coast city with a population of nearly 4 million people, is in second place is relatively new. For a very long time, Los Angeles was the largest source of travelers to Hawaii in the United States, holding a wide margin over San Francisco.
But the Bay Area rose to the top in 2016 and for four consecutive years. Part of that reason is that the marketing of Hawaii is changing.
“San Francisco is one of our major markets because we find a lot of people there who fit our profile,” Jay Talwar, chief marketing officer of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, tells SFGATE. The visitors bureau is contracted by the Hawaii Tourism Authority to manage its marketing in the United States.
“LA has a larger population base but I would think that San Francisco has a greater composition,” he says.
For the past few years, due to the effects of overtourism, marketing Hawaii has changed to a more directed approach. “We look for what we summarize as mindful travelers. People who exhibit an interest in learning about cultures and environments and being of the mindset that they want to perpetuate the unique cultures of the places they visit and not harm the environment,” Talwar says.
The visitors bureau uses insights collected from proprietary research to look at patterns in behavior based on geography. This allows them to narrow down which populations to focus their marketing efforts on.
“What we have seen is in San Francisco, the larger Bay Area, we have seen a high degree of visitors who exhibit that behavior,” he says. “They care about the culture, the places they visit, they care about the environment. They exhibit that at home and when they travel.” The visitors bureau uses digital media to market to the various audiences in the Bay Area.
Talwar says that people from the Bay Area are often repeat visitors and want to connect more with the community, so volunteer programs and activities, such as those included in Malama Hawaii, are right up their alley.
Aside from the state’s marketing efforts, there are other factors that can alter traveling patterns, including proximity. San Francisco is the closest major market to Hawaii. The flight time is 30 minutes less when compared to flights out of Los Angeles.
Income makes a difference as well. Vacationing in Hawaii is expensive, and hotel rates are continuing to rise. “If you look at the number of people who spend at a certain level for their vacations annually, San Francisco is very high on that list,” says Talwar.
Families who have been vacationing in Hawaii for generations are also adding to the effect, he says: “It’s kind of a standard vacation place and that has led to people from the San Francisco area having an affinity for Hawaii, but also caring for Hawaii.”
After all, people who care about Hawaii and who are mindful of their impact are the kind of travelers Hawaii wants — and that’s what the Bay Area has.