As Visitors Continue to Arrive, Tourist Areas Say: Stay Home

update “Virus refugees” are still going to some vacation spots, but leaders there are asking them to reconsider. Even as millions of Americans are on lockdown in their homes, some people are still traveling to vacation spots, drawn by cheap airfares, the hope of riding out the pandemic in someplace less populated, or both. In Hawaii, statistics show that arrivals, which have been trending down since late February, largely led by a steep drop in visitors from Japan, remained, as of March 16, at about 80 percent of last year’s figures. But a growing number of tourist destinations across the country are sending their own message to potential visitors: Stay home.

From Hawaii and Moab, Utah, to the Outer Banks, N. C. , and a small island in Maine, local authorities are urging travelers to reconsider trips that are not essential. Even permanent residents in popular second-home locations like the Hamptons, in New York, aren’t always welcoming the influx of people who own vacation houses.

“Tourists are still coming in,” said Julie Ohashi, 36, a Maui resident, in a telephone interview on Friday. She founded the Facebook group Maui Covid-19 Facts about a month ago, and has been protesting at the island’s airport with signs urging visitors to go home. On March 17, Hawaii’s governor, David Ige, asked travelers to postpone trips for 30 days. “The actions I’m announcing today may seem extreme to some of you, and we know that it will have negative effects to our economy.

But we are confident that taking aggressive actions now will allow us to have a quicker recovery when this crisis is over,” Governor Ige said in a news release. Travel is the leading economic driver in Hawaii. Last year, more than 10 million visitors arrived in the state, spending $17. 8 billion, according to the state’s Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

But in the coronavirus era, restrictions are mounting, and on Saturday, Governor Ige announced a 14-day self-quarantine beginning March 26 for both visitors and returning residents. Curfews and mandatory closures of restaurants bars and nightclubs for indoor service have been enacted in Honolulu, on the island of Kauai and in the County of Maui. Hawaii County has issued guidance that restaurants, bars and places of worship may make their own decisions to open or close, and consider ways to minimize risk to customers and employees. In the days preceding the announcement of the quarantine, the governor had requested that people postpone their visits, “but these aren’t people who will respond to a request,” Ms.