Kauai Wants Visitors Back. So Where Are They?

Kauai was doing just fine with arrivals before Hurricane Lowell. During the first six days of September, an average of 2,299 passengers a day arrived directly on domestic flights, actually up about 5% vs. comparable days last year.

Then Lowell hit; visitors were asked to reschedule trips or visit another island, and the number collapsed. During the latest five days available, September 19 through 23, direct domestic arrivals averaged just 859 passengers a day. The comparable number last year was 2,247, down nearly 62%.

We noticed this long before we ever saw these tourism numbers. Last week, Lihue Airport was nearly dead when we were there. The island was only beginning to move beyond the immediate emergency, and we wondered in our story about when visitors should return to Kauai how an island could tell travelers it needed space, then tell them when it was ready again.

Much of that message has now changed. Kauai is welcoming visitors back, businesses need customers, and most accommodations, restaurants, shops, tours, and activities are operating. Arrivals haven’t followed at nearly the same pace, however.

The drop happened virtually overnight.

DBEDT’s daily passenger data gives us an unusually clear before-and-after look because Kauai wasn’t experiencing an arrivals decline immediately before Lowell. From September 7 through 13, the average fell to just 461 a day, down nearly 79%.

September 8 recorded no direct domestic arrivals, according to the state. But by September 9, the number had climbed to 1,028, then fell back to 449 the next day and 377 on September 11.

These aren’t visitor counts in the strictest sense. The state includes returning residents and other arriving passengers along with visitors, while interisland passengers aren’t included in their metrics. But it does provide comparable prior-year dates, giving us a very useful look at what happened to direct domestic traffic into Kauai.

Arrivals have climbed from the bottom, but the recovery remains modest. From September 14 through 18, they averaged about 580 a day. Over the next five days, that increased to 859, still less than 40% of last year’s comparable level. On September 23 alone, 768 passengers arrived directly on domestic flights, compared with 2,123 on DBEDT’s comparable day in 2025.

Kauai is welcoming visitors, with a few major exceptions.

Immediately after Lowell, asking visitors to stay away made sense. Power was out across much of the island, roads were damaged, fuel and other supplies were strained, and crews needed room to work. Beyond that, it took time to assess exactly what had happened and what it would take to return to any kind of normalcy.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority’s September 23 update now says most accommodations, restaurants, shops, tours and activities have reopened. Travelers are being told to proceed with their trips when the essential parts of their itinerary are available, while rescheduling if those pieces aren’t.

Some of Kauai’s biggest outdoor attractions remain unavailable.

Waimea Canyon and Kokee State Parks remain closed, along with Haena State Park, Polihale State Park, and the Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park, including the Kalalau Trail. Kokee Road also remains closed until further notice, and all state park camping on Kauai remains closed.

Wailua River State Park is one of the limited exceptions. The river and designated landing and trailhead have reopened, but hiking beyond the trailhead and access to Secret Falls remain closed. The Waimea Valley section of Puu ka Pele Forest Reserve has also reopened on a limited basis, while its major trails remain closed.

That’s a changing picture from what we reported about Kauai state parks still closed after Lowell. Yet for anyone coming primarily for Kokee, Kalalau and Haena State Park, Waimea Canyon, or other state lands, a major part of the trip still isn’t available.

Beaches add another layer of confusion because county beach parks and state parks are entirely separate systems. Many county parks have reopened, but Haena, Black Pot, Hanamaulu, Poipu, and Salt Pond beach parks remained on the County’s September 23 closure list. A beach can also be physically accessible while the government park associated with it remains officially closed, so people on the sand don’t necessarily mean parking, restrooms, lifeguard facilities, and other park infrastructure have reopened.

For travelers trying to sort through the changing picture, Open Kauai tracks hundreds of businesses and visitor experiences as open, partially open, or closed, sometimes with expected reopening dates. The nonprofit Activities and Attractions Association of Hawaii created the site, and HTA now recommends checking it when planning a Kauai trip during this time period.

Businesses are waiting for the visitors too.

The creation of Open Kauai reflects another critical aspect of the recovery. Businesses that have reopened need a way to tell travelers they’re operating even while other parts of the island remain closed, and the site grew out of an online meeting where so many businesses were sharing their status that keeping track became difficult or impossible.

There are also indications that changed travel plans could extend beyond September. One Kauai business owner told the Associated Press that customers were canceling trips as far out as November. We don’t know how widespread those cancellations are, and the daily DBEDT numbers can’t tell us what future bookings will look like.

A canceled Kauai trip doesn’t automatically come back.

Travel decisions made during Lowell were often much bigger than canceling just one aspect. People changed flights, moved vacation rentals, switched islands, or postponed Hawaii entirely. Some were told explicitly that Kauai needed time to recover before their visit, while others were told to come anyway.

Once those decisions were made, there was no reason to expect all of them to reverse when conditions improved a week or two later. Airline schedules may account for some of the remaining difference, although we haven’t found evidence of any continuing reduction in mainland capacity remotely approaching the decline in arriving passengers.

September is normally a slower travel period for Kauai, which in fact makes it highly desirable for visitors in the know. But even that doesn’t explain the enormous year-over-year gap.

Lead Photo Credit: © Beat of Hawaii at Lihue Airport on September 15.

By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.

Some of the most meaningful parts of Hawaii are the ones visitors walk right past without knowing they are there. We’ve spent nearly 20 years finding them firsthand for BOH as full-time Hawaii residents reporting on travel, culture, and island life, and telling you what they mean for your trip. Join us →