Hawaii visitor arrivals rose for 4th time since Thursday

The number of visitors coming to Hawaii despite a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine to stem the spread of the coronavirus rose again Monday, which was the fourth day in a row of increases.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority reported today that Monday’s trans-Pacific passenger count was 513, including 133 visitors and 182 residents. The count also included 127 airline crew members, 22 transit passengers, and 46 intended new residents for Oahu and three for Kona.

The number of visitors on Sunday was 126, it was 106 on Saturday, 94 on Friday and 89 on Thursday.

Since March 26, when Gov. David Ige instituted a 14-day mandatory self-quarantine for all arriving trans-Pacific passengers, 1,735 visitors have come into the state. That quarantine was expanded to include interisland travelers on Wednesday. A count of interisland passengers is not yet available.

Violations of the quarantine mandate could result in a misdemeanor with fines up to $5,000 and/or up to one year in prison, or both.

While the count has been going up recently it’s still significantly below historic levels. Normally, at this time of year, roughly 360,000 visitors would have come between March 26 and April 6.

In April 2019, HTA reported that there was an average of 227,768 visitors statewide on any given day. That same month, some 856,250 visitors visited the Hawaiian islands and 831,445 came by air.