Hawaii is seeing a notable uptick in demand and visitation as it prepares to roll out a vaccine passport for fully vaccinated state residents next month.
According to new data released by STR this week, occupancy at Hawaii hotels reached 43 percent in March 2021, up from approximately 31 percent the previous month and 23 percent in January. The figure marks Hawaii's highest statewide occupancy in the last 11 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, OmniTrak president and chief operating officer, Chris Kam told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that "travel demand for Hawaii is picking up," with the state welcoming nearly 2.7 million visitors since the Safe Travels program rolled out in mid-October. According to preliminary data from the firm's first-quarter TravelTrakAmerica survey, 14 percent of travelers indicated that they were considering a trip to Hawaii in the next two years, which is up from 11 percent at the same time last year at the peak of the pandemic.
Currently, Hawaii is the fifth most popular state for travel considerations behind only Florida, California, New York and Texas. However, the Aloha State ranked just seventh this time last year, also trailing Colorado and Nevada.
Evidence of increased demand for Hawaii can also be found in the addition of new flight routes. For example, Hawaiian Airlines recently launched nonstop service between Honolulu and Austin, Texas, the airline's fourth new route announcement in less than two months. "We are feeling a little bit more of a bounce in our step. We know we aren't out of the woods yet. But we are seeing more rays of sunshine than dark clouds-so we are really encouraged about how things are getting better," the airline's CEO and President Peter Ingram told the news outlet.
"Load factors are starting to recover. We've had certain days in the 70s and 80s (percent capacity)," he added. "So we're not all the way back, but we're on the incline."
Out-of-state visitors to Hawaii can bypass the state's mandatory 10-day quarantine by securing a negative COVID-19 test result within 72 hours of departure under the Safe Travels program introduced back in October.
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