Watch Out Hawaii, Okinawa is Stiff Competition

Hawaii now has some serious competition when it comes to attracting tourists.

The Okinawa prefectural government just announced that for the first time ever, the Japanese sub-tropical islands attracted more tourists than Hawaii in 2017.

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About 9.396 million visitors traveled to Okinawa last year compared to 9.382 for Hawaii, according to The Asahi Shimbun, an Asian publication.

Okinawa’s government has apparently long had its sights set on surpassing Hawaii.

“We aim to make Okinawa a world-class beach resort that could be a match for Phuket or Bali, which attract 13 million tourists a year,” a prefectural official in charge of tourism said according to Asahi Shimbun.

The 2017 tourist numbers for Okinawa represent a 9.2 percent increase from the previous year. Visitor numbers to the Japanese destination have been rising for five straight years.

In addition to the increase in the annual totals, monthly tourist numbers are also higher than they were in 2016, with August 2017 marking the first month that Okinawa ever surpassed one million arrivals, The Asahi Shimbun reported.

Various factors are contributing to the destination’s increasing wave of tourism, among them, new regular flights from Singapore and other cities, as well as more visits from cruise ships.

The increasing numbers also include a growing share of foreign visitors. In 2017, 2.692 million foreign tourists visited Okinawa, a 26.4 percent increase from one year earlier.

A Japanese prefecture that includes more than 150 islands in the East China Sea between Taiwan and Japan's mainland, Okinawa is known for its tropical climate, beaches, coral reefs, and World War II sites.

The largest of its more than 100 islands is also named Okinawa and is home to the Okinawa Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum, commemorating a massive 1945 Allied invasion.