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Things Slow At Hawaii's National Parks

On our recent trip to Hawaii we had a feeling that things were less busy than usual. Now there are some numbers to back up our hunch: The national parks in the state saw a drop in attendance of more than 50,000 visitors during the month of October.

It's not as if no one is going: So far this year, 3.8 million people have checked out the state's parks, but that's a decline of about 11 percent compared to the first 10 months of 2007. Things don’t seem to be isolated to just one area, as parks on all the islands have seen a drop in attendance. Even the most popular, the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, saw nine percent fewer visitors last month than it did in October 2007.

Unlike the operators of other tourist attractions, the government isn’t one to start slashing prices and offering sales. That said, many of the parks' entrance fees are more than reasonable and allow entry for up to a week. So we can almost certainly chalk up the decline in attendance at the parks to an overall decline in tourism on the islands.

Related Stories:
· Hawaii Parks Saw 12.3% Fewer Visitors in October [Pacific Business News]
· National Parks coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: D'Arcy Norman]