News Releases
Hawaii Visitor Statistics Released for September 2020
For Immediate Release: October 29, 2020
HTA Release (20-185)
September 2020 Visitor Statistics Press Release
HONOLULU – The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected visitor arrivals to the Hawaiian Islands in September 2020. Visitor arrivals decreased 97.4 percent 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 September were required to abide by a mandatory
14-day self-quarantine. Exemptions include travel for essential reasons like work or healthcare. There was also a partial interisland quarantine for anyone traveling to the counties of Kauai, Hawaii, Maui, and Kalawao (Molokai) during September. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continued to enforce the “No Sail Order” on all cruise ships.
In September 2020, a total of 18,868 visitors traveled to Hawai‘i by air service, compared to 736,155 visitors who came by air service and cruise ships in September 2019. Most of the visitors were from U.S. West (9,994, -96.7%) and U.S. East (6,033, -95.5%). Only 79 visitors came from Japan (-99.9%) and 162 came from Canada (-99.3%). There were 2,601 visitors from All Other International Markets (-97.7%). Many of these visitors were from Guam, and a small number of visitors were from the Philippines, Other Asia, Europe, Latin America, Oceania and the Pacific Islands. Total visitor days dropped 89.9 percent year-over-year.
A total of 156,220 trans-Pacific air seats serviced the Hawaiian Islands in September, down 84.6 percent 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 (-99.8%), U.S. East (-85.9%), U.S. West (-79.1%), and Other countries (-54.7%).
Year-to-Date 2020
In the first nine months of 2020, total visitor arrivals declined 71.6 percent to 2,220,009 visitors, with considerably fewer arrivals by air service (-71.7% to 2,190,217) and by cruise ships (-68.7% to 29,792) compared to the same period a year ago. Total visitor days fell 67.3 percent.
Year-to-date, visitor arrivals by air service declined from U.S. West (-72.1% to 963,552), U.S. East
(-69.1% to 544,736), Japan (-74.9% to 294,647), Canada (-60.3% to 156,177) and All Other International Markets (-75.9% to 231,105).