HONOLULU — More tourists traveled to Hawaii on Saturday than the state has seen in a single day for the reason that begins of the coronavirus pandemic.
About 26,400 trans-Pacific and interisland travelers had been screened by the state’s Safe Travels program on Saturday, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Tuesday.
That is Hawaii’s busiest day since coronavirus restrictions caused travel to plummet last year.
Data compiled by the Hawaii Tourism Authority confirmed that about 18,700 travelers had been flying on Saturday for vacation or pleasure.
The Transportation Security Administration mentioned Friday was its busiest screening day since March 15, 2020, with nearly 1.36 million individuals going through airport checkpoints in America.
The increase coincides with spring break and more vaccinations.
On Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 100 million COVID-19 vaccines have been administered within the U.S.
Travel to Hawaii is still nicely under pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, Hawaii had a record 10.4 million arrivals.
“Our advance bookings are very strong and getting stronger,” Keith Vieira, principal of KV & Associates, Hospitality Consulting. “Hotels are seeing continued pickup all the way through summer, which we expect could run as high as 50% occupancy. We’re hearing from visitors that they wish to travel and that Hawaii might be their most trusted vacation spot.”
Still, tourism is anticipated to struggle in Hawaii for years to come.
“We won’t be back to 2019 levels even by 2022 as a result of we’ve had too many group cancellations,” Vieira mentioned. “We also need to get international visitors back.”
