Hawaii tourism severely impacted by COVID-19 pandemic January 28, 2021 Hawaii’s visitor industry continues to be severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2020, visitor arrivals dropped 75.2 percent compared to a year ago, according to preliminary statistics released by the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s (HTA) Tourism Research Division. This past December, a total of 235,793 visitors traveled to Hawaii by air service, compared to 952,441 visitors who came by air service and cruise ships in December 2019. Most of the visitors were from the U.S. West (151,988, -63.7%) and U.S. Eas...