Nearly 500 visitors arrived in Hawaii on Friday, comprising about one third of all air travelers arriving in the state that day, according to data released by the Hawaii Tourism Authority today.

Friday’s 1,534 air travelers arrived on 16 flights and included 475 visitors, 458 returning residents, 191 military members, 173 crew members, and 92 people continuing on to other destinations. There were also 79 people who were exempt from the state’s two-week quarantine for travelers and 66 people who said they are relocating to Hawaii.

The visitors flew to three islands with 433 going to Oahu, 26 heading to Maui, and 16 flying to Kauai. The majority of travelers, 1,394, flew to Oahu.

Visitor arrivals have been rising and falling since Gov. David Ige issued the nation’s first mandatory 14-day quarantine for travelers on March 26 to clamp down on tourism and stop the coronavirus’ spread in Hawaii. Since the lockdown began, visitor arrivals have been on an overall upward trend from lows of below 100 per day in April to a peak of 667 visitors on June 7.

With the number of new cases being below double digits for all of May, tourism leaders have been urging the state to begin the process of reopening the economy by coming up with a plan to lift the mandatory quarantine, which is currently set to expire July 31. The quarantine has effectively wiped out tourism at a great cost to the local economy, which has seen unemployment claims rise above 230,000 since March 1.

The state reported Thursday that the seasonally adjusted jobless rate dipped slightly last month to 22.6% after peaking at a revised all-time high of 23.8% in April, according to data released by the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Lt. Gov. Josh Green, who was asked by Ige to lead a hui to come up with a plan to reopen tourism, is working on a protocol that gives passengers the option of bypassing the quarantine if they take a COVID-19 test within 72 hours of coming to Hawaii and produce negative results upon entry.

The number of arriving passengers remain a tiny portion of the 35,000 passengers who were arriving in Hawaii at this time last year.

Of the 433 visitors who traveled to Oahu on Friday, 83% answered on a mandatory state travel declaration form that the purpose of their trip was to visit friends and family. Just 5% said they were traveling for business and 7% said they were coming to the islands for vacation. The remaining visitors stated multiple reasons for their visit, and 11 didn’t answer the question.