Tourism arrivals anticipated to stay excessive by means of 2022, Maui overwhelmed

HONOLULU (KHON2) – Tourism is back and some islands are seeing more visitors than they did before the pandemic.

Hawaii will allow vaccinated mainland travelers bypass a pre-test and quarantine enter the state in less than two weeks.

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The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization (UHERO) said this shouldn’t lead to a surge in visitor numbers as most summer trips are already booked, along with accommodation restrictions and the lack of rental cars.

“We could see a small crack [in visitors], but to be honest, we are looking to the summer, probably exceeding the arrivals of 2019 very, very close to it ”, explained UHERO managing director Dr. Carl Bonham.

East Maui residents are overwhelmed by the flow of visitors and traffic

UHERO released a summer tourism forecast in May that didn’t anticipate the number of arrivals the state is now seeing.

“Our optimistic forecast in June was about 75% of the arrivals in 2019, I think we will be at 81%,” explained Dr. Bonham.

The Mayor of Maui is working on approaching Hana Hwy. Traffic, wrong parking

Hawaii Island and Oahu saw more daily visitors in June than in 2019, according to the Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism.

“If you look at advance bookings, all of the islands, except Oahu, have bookings for 2021, summer and fall that either match or exceed 2019 bookings,” added Bonham.

More tourism means more trash on the beaches of Hawaii

He said the return of Japan visitors was uncertain due to the Olympics and their slow adoption of vaccination, but Oahu could soon see a big surge in Australian and Canadian visitors.

UHERO expects a slowdown in the fall as Americans get back to work and school and travel wandering declines. In October 2019, the state recorded 800,000 visitors.

“Instead of being 80% of 2019 levels, we will likely be 90, maybe 95%,” added Bonham.

Maui County is already feeling overwhelmed. On Friday June 25, Mayor Michael Victorino said he was meeting with airline executives to see if they would voluntarily restrict flights to Kahului and met with the Department of Transportation about gate issues since Kahului Airport “Overcapacities” is.

According to flight data, 54 flights from the U.S. mainland arrived to Kahului on Saturday, June 26, and 12 of those flights landed within 20 minutes from a competing airline from the same cities.

“It is unfortunate that we are being hit by so many travelers at the same time,” said Sen. Lynn DeCoite (D) Molokai, East Maui. “I agree that we should all stagger these flights because at this point it is really up to the airlines to try to try and match these cuts with the downsizing of our employees or jobs, etc.

The Hawaii Department of Transportation released the following statement on Saturday:

We appreciate the return of jobs and other economic benefits of returning from air travel to Kahului Airport (OGG). Flight schedules and gate assignments have been made by July and OGG has the capacity to handle the scheduled traffic. The Hawaii Department of Transportation will continue to work with our airport stakeholders to manage gate and other operations as efficiently as possible.

HDOT recognizes the importance of educating visitors who come through OGG and are working with the Hawaii Tourism Authority to distribute flyers and put up signage to support this.