Can tourism sustain itself through the pandemic: nexus between tourism, COVID-19 cases and air quality spread in the ‘Pineapple State’ Hawaii

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely hit the United States of America (USA) with tourism being one of the most directly affected sectors. The effect is even more striking in Hawaii, which has been one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States since the 1950s. While the state government’s early reaction has resulted in a decrease in COVID cases in this state, travel restrictions established in response to the pandemic have wreaked havoc on the state’s tourist economy. To quantitatively measure this impact, this paper investigates the nexus between the international tourist arrivals, COVID-19 spread, and air quality in Hawaii. Using the daily data from March 2020 to August 2020, the study employs the robust methodology comprising Wavelet coherence, partial and multiple Wavelet coherence methods. The empirical results reveal a significant coherence between international tourists, COVID-19 cases, and air quality at different time–frequency compositions.