Hawaii’s daily visitor count averaged 90,776 in February

The daily visitor census in Hawaii, on any given day in February, was about 36% of the same time last year.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority reported today that there were 90,776 visitors in Hawaii on any given day in February 2021, compared to 250,052 visitors per day in February 2020.

HTA said 235,283 visitors traveled to Hawaii by air service in February 2021, down 71.6% from the 828,056 visitors who came by air and cruise ships a year ago. Domestic arrivals, which were down 59.3%, made up 233,623 of the arrivals by air. Only 1,660 of the arrivals or 99.3% less by air came from an international source market.

Visitor spending fell 73.6% to $385.3 million from nearly $1.46 billion during February 2020, which was before COVID-19 decimated Hawaii tourism. Visitor spending averaged $13.8 million per day compared to $50.3 million per day in February 2020.

Per person per day spending during February fell year-over-year to 24.6% to just over $152 from more than $201.

The drop in air seats, along with the COVID-19 related travel restrictions that were in place in February, contributed to the decline in visitor arrivals. In February, there were an average of 91 flights and 19,008 air seats per day, considerably less than the 172 flights and 38,186 seats a day that were available in February 2020.

February’s statistics brought the number of visitors year to date to 407,259, down 75.9% from the first two months of 2020. The average daily census during the first two months decreased to 85,519 total visitors compared to 260,059 visitors per day.

Year to date through February, total visitor spending dropped 75.8% to $768.7 million. During the first two months of the year, visitors spent an average of $13 million per day compared to $52.9 million per day during the same period in 2020.

Per person per day spending during the first two months of the year fell 25.1% to $152 from more than $203 during the same time last year.