Hawai’i Tourism Europe Newsletter May 2015 Send us your product news! Please feel free to keep us posted on any news and updates regarding your product in 2015 which may be of interest to the European market and we are happy to include it in our quarterly newsletter to the European trade partners and consumers. The next issue will be sent out on June 15, 2015!

Market Trends & Travel Trade News Global: 1 Top Tourism Industry Trends to watch in 2015 The tourism industry is always subjected to change, even more so in today's dynamic climate. Technological breakthroughs that trickle down to the end user, new business ideas, fluctuations in prices for all sorts of consumables and materials, the way large companies interact with each other and the rise and fall of economies around the globe, they all affect the way in which global tourism looks like. Out of the multitude of factors to consider, five trends have caught the eyes of experts, trends that offer more than a glimpse into the future of the tourism sector for years to come.  More People With Internet In Their Pockets  The Big Fish Will Continue To Eat The Little, Only Faster  Airbnb/'s Mark On The Industry  Cheaper Oil Will Not Translate Into Much Cheaper Airplane Tickets New study reveals how and why we will travel by 2030 By 2030, more than 1.8 billion people will travel internationally every year. What motivates them and how they behave will be radically different to today. Over the next 15 years the desire to share travel experiences will be profound, and so too the impact of sharing on inspiration and purchase trends will grow. As consumers in developed markets approach a post-material era we expect a much greater focus on, first of all, experience, and second of all, ethics, both environmental and social, to significantly influence people’s travel choices and behaviours.” UK Travel news roundup: 2 Virgin to launch flights to Hawaii Virgin America will start flying from San Francisco to Honolulu and Maui later this year. Beginning November 2, 2015, Virgin will offer a daily service to Honolulu and to Kahului-Maui from December 3, 2015. 1 2

tourism-review.com, amadeus.com travelmole.com,

Introductory fares are now on sale from $199 one way plus taxes. "As one of the most popular leisure destinations among [San Francisco] Bay Area travelers, we are pleased to announce our new nonstop service to Hawaii," said Virgin America president and chief executive officer David Cush. "This marks the next phase of growth for our airline, as we take delivery of new Airbus aircraft and expand our Elevate program with more world-class rewards destinations." Virgin said Hawaii was the 'most wanted' destination for members of its Elevate loyalty program. "San Francisco is one of our top visitor markets and we look forward to welcoming Virgin America and its guests to the Hawaiian Islands. These flights will generate an estimated $138.6 million in annual visitor spending and $14.8 million in state tax revenue," said David Uchiyama, Vice President, Brand Management of the Hawai'i Tourism Authority. The nonstop flights will be operated with new Airbus A320 aircraft which the airline will take delivery of later this year. Germany Travel news roundup: 3 Weak demand in March Holiday demand was surprisingly weak in Germany in March after good sales in recent months, according to a survey of travel agents. Bookings for winter and summer holidays increased by only 1.7%, the monthly survey of 1,200 leisure travel-focused agencies by market researchers GfK found. Summer 2015 sales were slightly better with a 2.8% rise, which left the cumulative increase at 5.9%. However, this is a surprisingly low monthly growth figure after the 10% rise in February and 6.4% cumulative increase until that month, as well as considering the weak comparative month of March 2014 which marked the start of a weak bookings period through until last summer. In terms of individual months, summer 2015 sales trends were relatively stable last month. May now has a cumulative 20% rise in bookings, thanks partly to the spring holidays that month, while June is down by 4.6%. Demand was also strong for August, with a 1.3% rise on the previous year, even though sales were 20% higher for the same month last year. In contrast, late holiday demand for winter 2014/15, which ends in April, was low and revenues were 4.3% behind the previous year. The winter season dropped back slightly to a cumulative rise of 2.1%. Moreover, there was a high proportion of early bookings in March, with as much as 14.3% of sales revenues already being spent on departures after November 2015. However, the GfK figures are in striking contrast to the monthly survey by IT services company TATS which evaluates figures from 2,400 flight-oriented travel agencies. The number of leisure travel advance bookings in March was 14.3% higher than 12 months previously, while revenues for departures in March were 10.7% higher than the previous year, the TATS survey showed. Leisure travel sales had a cumulative 6.2% rise for the first three months of 2015.

3

www.fvw.com

Tour operator brands - Low travel agent loyalty Tour operator brands are not very important for travel agents in Germany compared to factors such as holiday prices, an exclusive fvw survey has revealed. Only 55% of German travel agents said that a brand-name was important or very important when selling tour operator holidays, compared to a very high 95% for cruises. Customers do not care about brands, only the price, according to three out of four respondents. Agents themselves are much more interested in commissions, product quality and price accuracy than in brand loyalty, the survey of 162 travel agencies showed. Reasons for this could be that tour operator products are relatively interchangeable and factors such as price play a much stronger role compared, for example, to cruise holidays. The results appear to show that while leading tour operators are trying to develop a stronger range of exclusive products, their marketing is failing to turn this into brand loyalty. In general, clearly positioned specialist brands scored better than general brands in the fvw survey. In terms of individual brands, the clear winner in the overall ranking of 20 leading brands was cultural holidays specialist Studiosus, ahead of Meier’s Weltreisen, TUI’s premium brand Airtours, Dertour and TUI. The other top ten brands were Schauinsland-Reisen, TUI cultural holidays brand Gebeco, rail travel specialist Ameropa, DER Touristik brands Jahn Reisen and ITS, and TUI’s budget brand 1-2Fly. The various Thomas Cook brands scored poorly, all ranked in the lower half of the table, along with FTI Touristik and Alltours. In contrast, tour operators scored much better in terms of customer service, value for money, reliability and safety, offering and image in a survey of 1,800 consumers who had taken a package holiday in the last two years, TUI and ITS both scored ‘very good’, ahead of Thomas Cook, L’tur, Jahn Reisen, 1-2-Fly, Alltours, Dertour, Schauinsland-Reisen, FTI, ADAC Reisen and Neckermann, in the survey for TV station N-TV.

Activities in April 2015 Germany: COOP MARKETING CAMPAIGNS FTI Touristik The coop spring campaign with FTI Touristik, one of the biggest wholesalers in the German speaking market, continued in April with online activities, both B2B and B2C, and will be followed by in-store promotions in the coming months. B2B Banner leading to a dedicated Landing Page:

B2C Banner leading to a dedicated Landing Page:

UK: COOP MARKETING CAMPAIGNS My America Holidays The coop spring campaign with, My America Holidays started this month. They were established in the UK in 1992 as a North American specialist tour operator. In recent years the company has developed new programmes to the Caribbean and Mexico. Activity includes: 18 dedicated Hawaii brochure pages, PPC campaign, My Hawaii Holiday micro-site production and maintenance, social media activity and PR. Activity includes dedicated press campaign in The Daily Telegraph. The Hawaii Microsite:

Thank you for reading the HTE Newsletter. Should you have any comments, suggestions or information please feel free to contact Kerstin Wierzeyko ([email protected]).

Mahalo!