HTA Releases August Visitor Arrival Numbers

The COVID-19 pandemic considerably impacted visitor arrivals to the Hawaiian Islands in August 2020.

Visitor arrivals dropped 97.6% compared to a year ago, according to preliminary statistics released by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority’s (HTA) Tourism Research Division.

All passengers arriving from out-of-state during August were required to abide by a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine. Exemptions include travel for essential reasons like work or healthcare. On Aug. 11, a partial interisland quarantine was reinstated for anyone traveling to the counties of Kaua‘i, Hawai‘i, Maui, and Kalawao (Moloka‘i). The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continued to impose the “No Sail Order” on all cruise ships.

In August 2020, a total of 22,344 visitors traveled to Hawai‘i by air service compared to 926,417 visitors during the same month a year ago. Most of the visitors were from U.S. West (12,778, -97.0%) and U.S. East (7,407, -96.3%). Only 220 visitors came from Japan (-99.9%) and 100 came from Canada (-99.7%). There were 1,839 visitors from All Other International Markets (-98.4%). Many of these visitors were from Guam, and a small number of visitors were from the Philippines, Other Asia, Europe, Latin America, Oceania, Puerto Rico and the Pacific Islands. Total visitor days1 decreased 91.3 percent year-over-year.

A total of 179,570 trans-Pacific air seats serviced the Hawaiian Islands in August, down 85.2% from a year ago. There were no direct flights or scheduled seats from Canada, Oceania, and Other Asia, and very few scheduled seats from Japan (-99.7%), U.S. East (-89.6%), U.S. West (-80.3%), and Other countries (-56.5%).

Year-to-Date 2020

In the first eight months of 2020, total visitor arrivals decreased 69% to 2,201,141 visitors, with significantly fewer arrivals by air service (-69.1% to 2,171,349) and by cruise ships (-61.3% to 29,792) compared to the same period a year ago. Total visitor days fell 65.1%.

Year-to-date, visitor arrivals by air service declined from US West (-69.6% to 953,559), US East (-66.9% to 538,703), Japan (-71.4% to 294,568), Canada (-58.0% to 156,015) and All Other International Markets (-72.9% to 228,504).