Tourism traffic quiets down

September has come in like a lamb, based on arrivals counts at Hawaii airports, due to a slowdown in visitor traffic from the Mainland.
Total arrivals by air fell below 20,000 on three consecutive days -- Sunday, Monday and Tuesday -- according to estimated tallies by the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism. It's the first time that has happened since April.
Arrivals for the first five days of the month topped 100,000 but came in 4.4 percent lower than the commensurate period last year.
The decline cannot be attributed to Japanese traffic this time -- it's down only 1.6 percent from last year. Instead it's a falloff of traffic from the Mainland, which is down 5.6 percent to Honolulu and down 11.5 percent to Maui. It's up 11.4 percent to the Big Island and up 13 percent to Kauai.