Total spending by visitors who came to Hawaii in September was $1.05 billion, 15.4% lower than the $1.25 billion reported for September 2019.
Through the first nine months of 2021, total visitor spending was $9.03 billion, according to state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. This was a decrease of 32.1% from the $13.30 billion spent through the first nine months of 2019.
Comparative September 2020 visitor spending statistics were not available because the Departure Survey could not be conducted due to COVID-19 restrictions.
According to DBEDT, 505,861 visitors arrived by air service to the islands in September, primarily from the U.S. west and U.S. east markets. By comparison, only 18,409 visitors arrived by air in September 2020, and 736,155 visitors arrived by air and by cruise ships in September 2019.
A total of 4,859,655 visitors arrived in the first nine months of 2021 — double the arrival count from a year ago. Total visitor arrivals were down 37.9% compared to the 7,828,965 visitors in the first nine months of 2019.
On Aug. 23, Gov. David Ige urged travelers to curtail nonessential travel until the end of October due to a surge in Delta variant cases that overburdened the state’s health care facilities and resources.
And the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continued to enforce restrictions on cruise ships through a “Conditional Sail Order,” a phased approach for the resumption of passenger cruises to mitigate the risk of spreading COVID-19 onboard.
“The late summer surge of the delta variant continued to depress visitor spending and visitor arrivals in September, which had a negative impact on our state’s economy and more importantly, the health of our residents,” Hawaii Tourism Authority President and CEO John De Fries said in a statement. “However, despite the anticipated slowdown in fall travel, we were encouraged to see the positive results from the U.S. west and U.S. east markets knowing how visitor spending translates into continued support for jobs in our community.”