Fewer Visitors to Maui in June 2021 than June 2019, But They Spent More

The 260,618 visitors to Maui in June 2021 contributed $503 million to the local economy, which is 5.4% more than the $477 million spent by the 295,926 tourists who came to the island pre-pandemic in June 2019.

While there were fewer visitors in June 2021 compared to June 2019, the higher amount of spending was due to visitors staying longer at an average of 8.6 days, up 11.6% from two years ago.

The information is according to preliminary visitor statistics jointly released by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism and the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority.

The average daily census showed that there were 74,731 visitors per day on Maui in June 2021, compared to 76,008 visitors per day in June 2019 and only 1,751 visitors per day in June 2020, when the pandemic led to the shutdown of most of the tourist economy.

Through the first half of 2021, there were 984,154 visitors to Maui compared to 1,522,534 (-35.4%) in the first half of 2019. For the first half of 2021, total visitor spending was $1.9 billion, a decrease of 27.2% from the $2.61 billion spent in the first half of 2019.

For the state of Hawai’i, total visitor spending in June 2021 was $1.44 billion, a decrease of 11.9% from the $1.63 billion spent in June 2019.

Through the first six months of 2021, total visitor spending was $4.86 billion, down 45.1% from the $8.86 billion spent through the first half of 2019.

In June 2021, 791,053 visitors arrived by air service to the Hawaiian Islands, primarily from the US mainland. Prior to the global COVID-19 pandemic and Hawaiʻi’s quarantine requirement for travelers, the Hawaiian Islands experienced record-level visitor expenditures and arrivals in 2019 and in the first two months of 2020.

When compared to 2019, visitor arrivals in June 2021 were down 16.5% from the June 2019 count of 947,112 visitors (air and cruise). In comparison, only 17,068 visitors arrived by air in June 2020.

A total of 2,751,849 visitors arrived in the first half of 2021, 46.8% lower than the 5,171,182 visitors in the first half of 2019.

Individuals who were fully vaccinated in the United States could bypass the quarantine order beginning June 15, 2021. Inter-county travel restrictions were lifted also as of June 15, 2021. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) enforced restrictions on cruise ships through a “Conditional Sail Order.”

Additionally, most passengers arriving from out-of-state and traveling inter-county could bypass the State’s mandatory 10-day self-quarantine with a valid negative COVID-19 NAAT test result from a Trusted Testing Partner prior to their departure to Hawaiʻi through the Safe Travels program.

The average daily census showed that there were 255,936 visitors in Hawaii on any given day in June 2021, compared to 15,223 visitors per day in June 2020 and 277,930 visitors per day in June 2019.

Most of the visitors were from the US mainland. There were only 1,859 visitors from Japan in June 2021, compared to 126,592 visitors (-98.5%) in June 2019. The visitors from Japan spent $7.4 million in June 2021 compared to $182 million (-96.0%) in June 2019.

Only 627 visitors arrived from Canada in June 2021, compared to 19,172 visitors (-96.7%) in June 2019. 

There were 19,390 visitors from All Other International Markets in June 2021, down 82% from the 107,428 visitors who came during June 2019. Many of these June 2021 visitors were from Guam, and a small number of visitors were from Other Asia, Europe, Latin America, Oceania, Philippines and Pacific Islands.

There also were no cruise ship activities during the first half of 2021 in Hawaiʻi. In the first half of 2019, there were 64,238 visitors who flew to Hawai‘i and boarded a Hawai‘i home-ported cruise ship; and 77,035 visitors who came to Hawai‘i by way of 37 out-of-state cruise ships.

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