With the rise in social media, Internet booking sites, and last-minute fare and hotel deals, younger travelers to Hawaii largely include the backpacking set, students on spring break, or young professionals looking for a great deal.

Generation Y travelers, ranging in age between 18 and 30, are often characterized as adventurous, spontaneous, and, admittedly, frugal. And tourism experts and marketers are watching them.

Kevin Koch’s recent two-week trip to Maui and Oahu was really a pit stop on his way home to Germany after living in New Zealand for the past year.

The 19-year-old student traveled solo and on a budget.

His choice for one-week accommodations on Oahu: Waikiki Beachside Hostel, a 170-bed hostel tucked behind taller and seemingly grander hotels where the cheapest rate of $25.67 a night offers guests either the top or bottom bunk in a shared eight-person dormitory.

Koch, among the younger of the so-called Generation Y travelers, was more into windsurfing than lounging in a Hawaiian print duvet-covered double.

“I really loved it in Maui, all that windsurfing, and Waikiki was very touristy, but both are OK, and it’s good to have some of that,” Koch told Pacific Business News as he reclined in rattan furniture fronting a pair of 50-inch rear-projection televisions tuned to an afternoon UFC match at the hostel.

Adam Marland, a 25-year-old executive assistant to the general manager of the Nines, a luxury hotel in Portland, Oregon, spent just under $1,500 for an eight-day stay in Waikiki in February and was intent on taking in sunny activities such as hiking, parasailing, and surf lessons.

“Mostly though, I wanted to get 100 percent away from work and had a mental image of sipping Kona beer from a lanai you could get a tan from—that was the most important part of the trip,” he said in an email to Pacific Business News. “We wanted to do lots of activities but ultimately have a place to just sit back and relax with a breathtaking view that you would see on a screensaver. In the end, our room and beach were too nice.”

For now, Marland and other Gen Ys represent just a small share of Hawaii’s overall visitor market.

“For the long-term demand, as we’re managing the brand of Hawaii as well as the island brand, we certainly look at the younger cohorts who get on our radar,” said Jay Talwar, senior vice president of marketing for the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau. “But we’ve changed more recently to focus on demand for the shorter term just with the way the economy is.”

At more than 70 million, Gen Y accounts for 28.5 percent of the entire U.S. adult population and is second only to baby boomers at 33.6 percent.

But Gen Y accounts for only 5.7 percent of overseas travelers, according to data from Menlo Consulting Group, which the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau uses as a guideline in determining where and how best to focus its tourism marketing efforts.

“We look at the research, and while they’re on our radar, the short-term needs for the state make them not a primary target,” Talwar said. “But that doesn’t mean they’re not coming, because they are coming, and we will be looking at our interactions with them.

“We’re just not getting the arrivals, and we’re not getting the yield in the tax revenue that we’d like,” he added. “It’s one thing at a time, and it is an interesting group, and we’ll be looking at connecting with them in a positive way.”

Waikiki traditionally has been a destination for affluent travelers, even though Oahu’s average hotel room rate has fallen to $148 a night.

“We’re targeting myriad different travelers, and Gen Y, they’re younger in age and many, frankly, don’t have the money. And they are not a main focus right now because there are bigger concerns with the state getting visitors overall,” said Elizabeth Churchill, vice president of sales and marketing for Aqua Hotels & Resorts. “We’re not targeting specific demographics and really, we’re looking at anyone at this point, any warm body getting off that plane.”

Some big-name Waikiki hotels have dropped their rates to as low as $69 a night, which has started to encroach on business for budget properties and hostels.

Orlena Wong, owner of Waikiki Beachside Hostel, has just launched a new website and still offers nightly barbecues, a 24-hour Internet cafe, moped and surfboard rentals, and other youth-oriented amenities to compete for guests.

She said bookings have been down about 10 percent but that she is lucky to get repeat business from work- and student-exchange programs.

“Before the recession, we were at the top of our game and we were the place to be for bringing that experience, that value, memories, and meeting people,” she said. “You can’t find that in a hotel. But when they start offering rooms at $70 a night with partial ocean view, we’ve lost our niche, and we’re having to find our niche again because it’s getting lost in between all of that.”

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Linda Chiem is a reporter for Pacific Business News