Bowling in Hawaii: Examining the Effectiveness of Sports-Based Tourism Strategies

We use daily airplane arrival data from Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism to determine the net change in tourism for a variety of sporting events. We find two events generate a positive and significant net impact on arrivals: Honolulu Marathon and Pro Bowl. We estimate that the Honolulu Marathon produces between 2,183 and 6,519 in net arrivals while the Pro Bowl attracts about 5,595 to 6,725 in net arrivals. At the upper end of our estimates, the Honolulu Marathon and the Pro Bowl attract a nearly identical number of visitors despite the fact that the HTA spends nearly two-thirds of its budget on the rights to the Pro Bowl and spends nothing for the Hawaii Marathon. Neither event attracts the number of net arrivals claimed by its sponsor, and other sporting events do not generate any identifiable impact on tourist arrivals whatsoever.