Tourism Survey: 85% of Visitors Rated Trip Excellent Despite COVID-19 Challenges

The Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority (HTA) conducted a special online survey of US mainland visitors to gauge their experience with Hawaiʻi’s Safe Travels program and overall trip satisfaction and found 85 percent rated their trip “Excellent” and 94 percent said their trip exceeded or met expectations.

The survey of 495 visitors (299 from the US West and 196 from the US East) was conducted during December 21, 2020 through Jan. 4, 2021.

Hawaiʻi’s Safe Travels program allows most passengers arriving from out-of-state and traveling inter-county to bypass the mandatory 10-day self-quarantine with a valid negative COVID-19 NAAT test result from a Trusted Testing Partner. The test has to be taken no earlier than 72 hours from the final leg of departure and the negative result must be received before departure to Hawaiʻi.

Nearly every visitor surveyed was aware of the state’s pre-travel testing protocols prior to arrival, and 79 percent of them said the pre-travel testing went smoothly. Among those who indicated they experienced issues with the pre-testing process, 46 percent said they felt the 72-hour window for testing was unreasonable, 37 percent encountered difficulty finding a Trusted Testing Partner, 18 percent had difficulty with the Trusted Testing Partner and 15 percent said their test results did not arrive in time. 

Nearly all respondents were aware prior to arriving in the islands of the local government mandates in place to prevent the spread of the virus and 96 percent were aware of limited availability or capacity of visitor amenities.

The survey also asked questions regarding the COVID-19 vaccine, Hawaiʻi’s rate of COVID-19 infections as a factor in selecting the destination as a place to visit, and likelihood to return to the islands.

HTA’s Tourism Research Division partnered with Anthology Research to conduct the survey, as part of the contract for the Visitor Satisfaction and Activity Study. The findings were presented during HTA’s Board of Directors meeting on January 28.

The complete Visitor COVID-19 Study is available on HTA’s website: https://hawaiitourismauthority.org/media/6415/hta-visitor-covid-19-study.pdf