Posted: March 8, 2005

Athletics: 2004 Honolulu Marathon Generates over $90 Million in Economic Impact

HONOLULU - (March 8, 2005) - A comprehensive survey of 1,200 participants in the 2004 Honolulu Marathon and Race Day Walk by Hawaii Pacific University found the events together generated $90.72 million into the local economy last December.

That represents a $4 million increase in impact over the 2003 marathon and walk which generated $86.8 million.

The survey, conducted Dec. 8 through Dec. 11 by students of HPU's Travel Industry Management program at the Honolulu Marathon Living Aloha Expo at the Hawaii Convention Center, made extensive use of Japanese-speaking interviewers. Most participants in the Honolulu Marathon and Race Day Walk came from Japan.

The survey focused entirely on visitor participants from the U.S. mainland, Canada, Japan and other foreign countries who brought money to the state.

Of the 31,216 registered for the 2004 marathon and walk, 25,237 came from outside of Hawaii. Of the 25,237 visitor registrants for the two events, 20,411 came from Japan.

One of the significant findings of the survey was that 31 percent of respondents said five or more people accompanied them to the marathon or walk.

The marathon had 25,671 total entries in 2004 while the walk had 5,545 total entries. That was an overall 4 percent increase in local and visitor registration over 2003 for the two events.

Project Overview
A survey instrument was developed by a team from HPU's Travel Industry Management program in order to identify the economic benefits of the 2004 Honolulu Marathon. The survey instrument was translated into the Japanese language via a process of original and back translation. This survey was distributed and collected using Japanese-speaking interviewers for the Japanese-speaking runners. The survey was also distributed to English-speaking participants who were not residents of Hawaii. The instrument consisted of fifteen questions regarding accommodations, length of stay, as well as the amount of money that was spent by marathon participants on their lodging, food, souvenirs and other miscellaneous items while attending the marathon activities in Honolulu.

Professor Jerome Agrusa, who supervised the survey, can be reached at (808) 949-5819. Dr. Jim Barahal, president of the Honolulu Marathon Association, can be reached at (808) 255-2601.

Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Services Director
385 Oak View Lane
Santa Barbara, CA 93111

(805) 696-6232, fax (805) 967-5958
Ryan@RunningUSA.org
www.runningusa.org.