HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0675.550 2022-2024October 2, 2024
Hawaii County Council
Policy Committee on Planning, Land Use, and Development
Hawaii County Building
25 Aupuni Street
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
Aloha Committee Members,
My name is Erik Kloninger. I am a principal of Kloninger & Sims Consulting LLC, a Honolulu -
based consulting firm specializing in research and analysis of Hawai'i's lodging markets. My firm
was retained by Travel Tech, a trade association representing travel agencies, travel management
companies, and short-term rental platforms, to analyze the fiscal and economic impacts of
spending by visitors to Hawaii Island who stay in short-term rentals.
Visitors staying in short-term rentals on Hawaii Island represent a substantial share of the island's
visitor market. Our analysis of data provided by the State of Hawaii Department of Business,
Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT) found that visitors staying in short-term rentals
represented 43.7% of the island's total visitor days in 2023.
In 2023 visitors staying in short-term rentals on Hawaii Island generated the following:
• $1.3 billion in visitor spending,
9 $24.8 million in Hawaii County TAT and GET
DBEDT has calculated economic multipliers associated with various types of economic activity.
Part of every dollar of visitor spending generates additional economic activity in the local
economy, such as payments to suppliers, wages paid to employees and wages paid to suppliers'
employees, etc. When the DBEDT economic multipliers for visitor spending are applied, the $1.3
billion in spending by visitors staying in short-term rentals on Hawaii Island last year translates
to:
• $2.4 billion in economic output,
• $670 million in earnings and
14,000 jobs.
As Hawaii County policy makers consider new provisions for short-term rentals on the island, I
urge them to consider the fiscal and economic impacts that will result from reducing the number
of short-term rentals in the county.
Thank you for your time today.