U.S., March 31 -- In February 2020, flight cancellations to the Hawaiian Islands began due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The China market had the greatest impact during February with direct air service suspended on February 3 due to a travel ban on Chinese citizens to the U.S. However, overall visitor spending was up.

Total spending by visitors in the Hawaiian Islands increased to $1.46 billion (+4.6%) in February 2020, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Hawaii Tourism Authority . This represented an average of $50.3 million per day, an increase of 1.0 percent compared to February 2019. The average daily census 1 showed 250,052 total visitors in Hawaii on any given day in February, which was slightly higher (+0....