Passenger Arrivals Surge Recently, Hawaii Tracker Makes Vaccination Survey

Spring break is here, and passenger traffic to Hawaii from the mainland US has surged for the first time since the pandemic began. On Saturday (3/20), Hawaiʻi Island saw the highest daily rate of passenger arrivals since the pandemic began with 3,306 arrivals. This surpassed the previous high of 2,936 arrivals from just one week prior, on March 13th. Comparing recent arrivals with pre-pandemic levels using data from State Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism shows a significant return of visitors lately, with Maui and Hawaiʻi Island leading the way. The most significant change is on Maui, where visitation has bounced back to roughly 85% of the rates seen prior to the pandemic over the same one-week span. On Hawaiʻi Island, in the past week passenger arrivals have bounced back to 75% of 2019 levels, with Oahu following at 65% of 2019 levels. Kauai is the exception. Passenger arrivals remain down around 10% of 2019 levels. With this in mind, Hawaii Tracker is curious as to what the vaccination rate is for prospective travelers coming to Hawaii. It could very well be that the surge in recent visitation to Hawaiʻi Island (and other islands) represents pent-up demand, and recent travel is being heavily supplemented by people that have already been vaccinated. A survey conducted by the Travel Leaders Network of their past and present clients found that 44% of travelers from February 6th to March 2nd have received vaccinations, with another 41% stating that they plan to receive the vaccine before traveling. We are curious if we can replicate their results among the Hawaiʻi Tracker membership. The rates of vaccination indicated by that particular poll are significantly higher than the national vaccination percentage (13.3% for both doses, 24.5% for at least one dose as of March 21st). This is a link to our poll, with one single question: “Before you travel to Hawaiʻi are you going to receive (or have you received) the COVID-19 vaccine?” https://forms.gle/6tsJ18dSacL99qzy8 We appreciate everyone that takes the moment to complete the survey, and will report back with these results and updated travel numbers in one week’s time. Mahalo!