Marketing Plan for Island of Hawaii Big Island Kona Hilo to Canadians

Kona, Hilo

Marketing Plan

Marketing a Hawaiian Vacation to Canadians

The Big Island

Target Market

Canadian Demographical Information

This report was generated to serve as the basis for a marketing plan for 2013. The target market will be analyzed in terms of its demographic information as well as its vacation preferences. The target market consists of Canadian travelers who might be interested in a trip to the big island and the goal is to increase the number of travelers as well as the length of the trip and the total expenditures per day and consequently per trip. The Canadian target market segment represents a key segment. Recently activity in this segment has increased fueled by favorable exchange rates. Thus, with an effective marketing plan, the environmental conditions can be leveraged even further to broaden the base of Canadian travelers.

The Big Island

The Big Island Overview (Hawaii Tourism Authority, 2012)

Hawaii Island isn't just big, it's still growing. The Island of Hawaii is the youngest island in the Hawaiian chain and is also by far the biggest, providing a vast canvas of environments to discover a variety of unrivaled natural wonders. This is the home of one of the world's most active volcanoes (Kilauea), the tallest sea mountain in the world at more than 33,000 feet (Maunakea), the most massive mountain in the world (Maunaloa) and the largest park in the state (Hawaii Volcanoes National Park). All but two of the world's climate zones generate everything from lush rain forests to volcanic deserts, snow-capped mountaintops to beautiful black sand beaches. Whether you're looking for a romantic getaway or a journey off the beaten path, you'll discover it all on Hawaii, the Big Island (Hawaii Tourism Authority, 2012).

The Big Island must not only compete with travel destinations other than Hawaii, but it must also compete with other locales within the state of Hawaii. Furthermore, a significant majority of Canadians do not travel once they reach their destination in Hawaii. Rather, there is a strong likelihood that whatever island they choose to visit will be the only island they travel too. Thus if the Big Island is to increase its influx from Canada, then it is reasonable to suspect that it will have to market directly to the Canadian target market before they have decided upon their vacation destination.

Figure 1 - Kona Sea Wall (Hawaii The Big Island, 2012)

Target Market

In 2011 there were about half a million visitors to the Hawaiian state. Of these travelers, less than twenty percent of them visited the Big Island. Furthermore, less than ten percent of the total travelers visited the Big Island exclusively. Relative to other Hawaiian destinations, the Big Island has either a limited amount of appeal or exposure to Canadian vacationers. The Big Island on average receives only a small percentage of travelers from Canada and of these visitors they are roughly equally split between the Kona side and the Hilo side.

STATE 2011 FINAL

JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NOV

DEC

TOTAL

(Arrivals by Air)

TOTAL VISITORS

58,773

58,598

68,356

44,482

23,591

16,159

25,467

27,458

19,664

29,562

40,008

65,445

477,564

Hawaii Island

12,120

12,244

12,445

8,202

3,692

2,601

4,522

4,704

3,908

5,229

6,418

11,619

87,703

Kona side

11,116

11,121

11,452

7,584

3,184

2,132

3,995

3,925

3,382

4,748

5,546

10,676

78,860

Hilo side

3,799

4,058

4,169

3,329

1,721

1,275

2,015

2,082

1,702

2,058

2,439

4,222

32,867

Hawaii Island only

6,381

6,111

6,685

3,663

1,263

1,326

1,656

1,323

2,077

2,846

5,730

39,850

Table 1 -- 2011 Data for Canadian Visitors (Hawaii Tourism Authority, 2012)

Canadians represent roughly seven percent of the total travelers to Hawaii and the number of traveler as a whole has rebounded significantly after the effects of the recession as well as the Japanese nuclear meltdown scared potential visitors with radiation concerns (Martin, 2012). In fact, after the disaster in Japan, many Japanese travelers did not vacation for an extended period of time and an influx of Canadian travelers help to fill this void (Travel Pulse, 2011). Canadian travelers are heavily influenced by the exchange rate since when there is a favorable rate then this effectively reduces the total price of their vacation to Hawaii (Schaefers, 2011). Recently, the August data suggests that Canadians increased in total visitors as well as in total spending which rose to over one hundred thirty four million in March of 2012 (Hawaiin Toursim Authority, 2012).

Canadian Demographical Information

The three highest provinces in terms of the total population are Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia, in that order. Toronto is Canada's largest city with a population of roughly five and a half million people living in the metropolitan area. Roughly five percent of the population in Canada earns ninety thousand or more per year and about half of these high-income Canadians live in Ontario (Murphy, 2007). Canadian have a progressive tax rate that is much different to that found in the United States and earn substantially less than the same income demographic in the United States. The labor force in Canada consists of over seventeen million people.

Table 2- Canadian Workforce (Statistics Canada, 2006)

Canada has a high growth economy with low inflation and a gross domestic product (GDP) rate that has grown as high as five percent throughout its development. Canadians have had a grown disposable income rate that has been rising since the mid-nineties which is a strong indicator of economic health. Canadians spend roughly fifty five percent of their total incomes on consumption and this level varies by a couple percentage points in each direction.