Visitor Arrivals to Hawai‘i Plummeted in June

Hawai‘i Tourism Authority. PC: HTA

Visitor arrivals to Hawai‘i were abysmal in June, dropping more than 98% year-over-year.

The Hawai‘i Tourism Authority’s (HTA) Tourism Research Division said the primary and obvious culprit was the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting consequence of an out-of-state traveler quarantine, which stretched through July and is now in place until at least the end of August.

Exemptions to the quarantine included only 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 US 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 Hawai‘i 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 US West (10,149, -97.8%) and US 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 days dropped 94.6% year-over-year.

A total of 110,570 trans-Pacific air seats serviced the Hawaiian Islands in June, down 90.6% 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 US East (-94.5%), US West (-88.4%), and Other countries (-54.5%).

Year-to-Date 2020

In the first half of 2020, total visitor arrivals decreased 58.5% 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%.

Year-to-date, visitor arrivals by air service decreased from US West (-59.0% to 927,890), US 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).