Visitor numbers continue to climb

Report: Maui’s visitor spending in December highest in state

Visitors to Maui in December increased by more than 27 percent month over month, capping monthly climbs since the state reopened to tourism, according to a recent report.

Although down significantly from the same months last year, visitor numbers have increased monthly since Oct. 15, when the state relaxed trans-Pacific travel rules. Also, visitor spending in December was the highest in the state for Maui despite Oahu having the highest volume of tourists.

Visitors to Maui in December were 90,605; 63,740 in November; 23,103 in October; and 2,581 in September, according to Hawaii Tourism Authority's Hawaii Visitor Statistics. The most recent monthly report was released Jan. 28.

Maui's visitor spending in December was $185.9 million -- the highest in the state. Oahu, despite receiving the highest volume of tourists in December with 112,856 visitors, logged $156.5 million in spending.

Per person, per day spending in December was $188 for Maui, also the highest in the state.

However, Maui's per person, per trip spending -- $2,052 -- was under both Kauai at $2,761 and Hawaii island at $2,036. Spending data was not available for Lanai and Molokai. The spending statistics for December were all from U.S. visitors.

Maui and Oahu had similar average length-of-stay numbers -- each roughly 11 days. Molokai was about 11 and Lanai was nearly seven. Visitors on average stayed the longest on Kauai, about 20 days, and Hawaii island, about 13 days.

Oahu in December had 1,238,363 total visitor days; Maui, 987,496; Molokai, 11,855; Lanai, 8,452; Hawaii island, 601,920; and Kauai, 74,594.

For all of 2020, arrivals decreased 74.1 percent to 791,660 visitors for Maui. There were 90,605 visitors to Maui in December versus 275,419 visitors a year ago. Compared to December 2019, spending was down 63.8 percent and total visitor days declined 58 percent.

Overall in December, a total of 235,793 visitors traveled to Hawaii by air, compared to 952,441 visitors who came by air service and cruise ships in December 2019.

Most of Hawaii's visitors are domestic travelers, although 3,833 came from Canada (down 94 percent year over year) and 1,889 visitors came from Japan (down nearly 97 percent year over year). There were 6,547 visitors from "all other international markets."

Viewed as a way to bolster Hawaii's tourism-based economy, a pre-travel testing program launched Oct. 15 that allows trans-Pacific travelers to bypass quarantine with a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of departure. The visitor industry largely shut down after a mandatory 14-day trans-Pacific travel quarantine began in March; it was recently reduced to a 10-day quarantine.

Despite the increase in visitors to Maui, with many people indicating their trips are for pleasure or vacation, the majority of COVID-19 cases in recent months have been linked to community-associated risks, though both resident and nonresident travel cases have been on the rise, state Department of Health data shows.

In October, the county had 133 cases. Of those, 122 were community associated, four were nonresident travel cases, three were resident travel cases and four were unknown or pending.

In November, the county had 150 cases. Of those, 93 were community associated, 27 were nonresident travel, 21 were resident travel and seven were unknown or pending.

In December, the county had 484 cases. Of those, 394 were community associated, 21 were nonresident travel, 64 were resident travel and five were unknown or pending.

Other U.S. states in December were also impacted by travel advisories and quarantine measures, according to HTA.

California residents returning from out of state in December were recommended to quarantine for 14 days. San Francisco also ordered a mandatory 10-day quarantine for travelers arriving from outside the nine-county Bay Area region. For Oregon, residents returning from other states or countries for nonessential travel were asked to self-quarantine for 14 days after arrival. The quarantine period could be shortened if they did not have any symptoms after 10 days, or after seven days if they had a negative test within 48 hours before ending quarantine. In Washington state, a 14-day quarantine was recommended for returning residents, and residents were asked to stay close to home.

In New York, returning residents in December were allowed to "test out" of the mandatory 10-day quarantine. Returning residents were required to obtain a COVID-19 test within three days of departure and also quarantine for three days. On the fourth day of their quarantine, the traveler had to obtain another COVID-19 test. If both tests came back negative, the traveler could exit quarantine early upon receipt of the second negative diagnostic test.

For full reports on the preliminary visitor data, visit hawaiitourismauthority.org.

* Kehaulani Cerizo can be reached at kcerizo@mauinews.com.