Many Happy Returns? The Pro-Bowl, Mega-events, and Tourism in Hawaii

We use daily airplane arrival data from 2004 to 2015 from Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism to determine the net change in arrivals around a variety of sporting events. We find only one event generates a positive and significant net impact on arrivals: the Honolulu Marathon, which generates roughly 3,900 additional arrivals. No other sporting events result in a measurable increase in tourist arrivals including, notably, the NFL’s Pro Bowl, which receives a large subsidy from the state’s tourism authority