Hawaii Visitor Statistics Reveal Severe Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted visitor arrivals to the Hawaiian Islands in June 2020. Hawaii Visitor arrivals were down 98.2 percent compared to a year ago, according to preliminary statistics released by the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s (HTA) Tourism Research Division.

All passengers arriving from out-of-state during June were required to abide by a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine. Exemptions include travel for essential reasons like work or healthcare. The interisland quarantine was in effect for the first half of June, ending on June 15. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also continued to enforce its “No Sail Order” on all cruise ships.

In June, a total of 17,068 visitors traveled to Hawaii by air service compared to 951,628 total visitors (by air and cruise ships) during the same period a year ago. Most of the visitors were from U.S. West (10,149, -97.8%) and U.S. East (5,596, -97.7%). A few visitors came from Japan (40, -100.0%) and Canada (57, -99.7%). There were 1,226 visitors from All Other International Markets (-98.9%). Many of these visitors were from Guam, and a small number of visitors were from Oceania, Other Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and the Pacific Islands. Total visitor days1 dropped 94.6 percent year-over-year.

A total of 110,570 trans-Pacific air seats serviced the Hawaiian Islands in June, down 90.6 percent from a year ago. There were no direct flights or scheduled seats from Japan, Canada, Oceania, and Other Asia, and very few scheduled seats from U.S. East (-94.5%), U.S. West (-88.4%) and Other countries (-54.5%).

Year-to-Date 2020

In the first half of 2020, total visitor arrivals decreased 58.5 percent to 2,156,234 visitors, with significantly fewer arrivals by air service (-58.4% to 2,126,443) and by cruise ships (-61.0% to 29,792) compared to the same period a year ago. Total visitor days dropped 55.2 percent.

Year-to-date, visitor arrivals by air service decreased from U.S. West (-59.0% to 927,890), U.S. East (-55.3% to 523,780), Japan (-59.9% to 294,295), Canada (-49.8% to 155,821) and All Other International Markets (-64.7% to 224,657).

Other Highlights:

U.S. West: In June, 7,442 visitors arrived from the Pacific region compared to 358,030 visitors a year ago, and 2,606 visitors came from the Mountain region compared to 88,264 a year ago. Through the first half of 2020, visitor arrivals declined substantially from both the Pacific (-60.1% to 700,877) and Mountain (-55.2% to 206,772) regions compared to the same period year-over-year.

U.S. East: Through the first half of 2020, visitor arrivals dropped considerably from all regions. The three largest regions, East North Central (-53.2% to 110,578), South Atlantic (-61.4% to 96,217) and West North Central (-41.3% to 94,467) saw significant decreases compared to the first half of 2019.

Japan: In June, 40 visitors arrived from Japan compared to 126,592 visitors a year ago. Year-to-date through June, arrivals declined 59.9 percent to 294,295 visitors.

Canada: In June, 57 visitors arrived from Canada compared to 19,239 visitors a year ago. Year-to-date through June, arrivals dropped to 155,821 visitors (-49.8%).

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