Research & Economic Analysis

Assisting the development of Hawaii’s key creative activities is an important economic development strategy for several reasons. First, Hawaii’s cultural diversity and its Hawaiian host culture are major attractions for millions of visitors and their spending. Second, the uniqueness of Hawaii’s creative, artistic and cultural content helps Hawaii’s creative products compete in worldwide markets and bring in export revenues. Third, the creative industries and their workforce are key sources of ideas, content and talent for Hawaii’s emerging technology/innovation sector.

In order to capture and track data on the range of activities in the creative industries, DBEDT’s Research and Economic Analysis Division teamed with the Creative Industries Division to review previous definitions of creative industries elsewhere and update the scope of the activities counted in Hawaii’s creative sector. In this update report to the 2007 Creative industries benchmark report additional industries have been added to the creative sector portfolio based on that review. In addition, several performance metrics have been developed to help monitor the sector’s progress more effectively.