A lack of international visitors to Hawaii combined with a COVID-19 surge and Gov. David Ige’s plea for travelers to avoid non-essential trips to the state contributed to a 22% drop in August visitor arrivals from pre-pandemic times.

In August, 722,393 visitors arrived by air to the islands, up significantly from the 23,356 visitors who came to Hawaii in August 2020, but down from the 926,417 who traveled to Hawaii in August 2019, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

On any given day in August, there were 211,269 visitors in the Hawaii up significantly from 22,625 visitors a day in 2020, but below the 252,916 in August 2019.

The domestic market was up by double digits from the same month in 2019, but wasn’t up enough to offset continued flatlining in Hawaii’s international source markets, which created mixed results across the islands.

Though Ige’s request to travelers to take a pause didn’t come until Aug. 23, it strongly affected passenger arrivals in the last week of the month. On Aug. 23 passenger arrivals were down nearly 22% from the same day in 2019, but by Aug. 25 had fallen by more than 34% and for the rest of the month the daily drop ranged from 43% to 72%.

August arrivals and spending on Oahu, which is more dependent on international arrivals than other islands, had not recovered to August 2019 levels. Kauai also fell short in both categories.

Last month’s arrivals exceeded August 2019 arrivals on Maui and Hawaii island; however spending was still playing catch up.

In August, 469,181 visitors arrived from the U.S. West, up 11.5% from the 420,750 U.S. West visitors who came in August 2019. There were 223,124 visitors from the U.S. East in August, an increase of 11.8% from the 199,659 U.S. East visitors who came in August 2019.

Total spending by visitors arriving in August 2021 was $1.37 billion, down 8.9% from the $1.5 billion generated in August 2019. There isn’t a spending comparison for August 2020.

“The August 2021 results showed that total visitor spending and visitor arrivals continued to steadily improve on the strength of the domestic travel market,” Hawaii Tourism Authority President and CEO John De Fries said in a statement. “However, until the international travel market returns, Hawaii will not reach the pre-pandemic levels of higher visitor spending that is essential to the state’s economy.

“It is also important to remember that tourism recovery is non-linear, meaning it ebbs and flows, and softening is anticipated for the traditionally slower fall shoulder season.”

Only 3,005 visitors came from Hawaii’s top international market Japan in August, down 98.1% from the 160,728 Japanese visitors who came in August 2019.

Visitor count from Canada reached 6,154 in August and was the highest since the breakout of COVID-19 in March 2020. However, the count was still 78.5% lower than the 28,672 Canadian visitors who came to Hawaii in August 2019.

DBEDT Director Mike McCartney said in a statement that August arrivals had recovered to 78% of August 2019 arrivals, while spending had recovered to 90.8% of August 2019’s level.

August results helped bring total visitor spending in the first eight months of the year to $7.98 billion, a 33.8 % drop from the $12.06 billion spent through the first eight months of 2019. Some 4,353,794 visitors arrived in the first seven months of 2021, which was 38.6 % lower than the 7,092,809 visitors who came to Hawaii in the first eight months of 2019.

McCartney said he expects tourism to slow down in September and October, but that recovery would accelerate again in November.

“The easing of the international travel restrictions by the federal government and effective in November will help bring more international visitors to our state,” he said. “We expect total visitor arrivals for the year will be at 6.8 million (65% recovery from 2019) and visitor expenditures at $12.2 billion (68.5% recovery from 2019).”