Hawaii Expected to Reopen in July
Tourism is a main source of income for the state of Hawaii. Close to 10 million visitors fly to the Hawaiian Islands annually with expenditures of over $16 billion. It makes up 23% of the state’s economy, and it has been heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Most of Hawaii’s 242,000 unemployed workers are also tied to the tourism industry.
Encouraging Numbers
Hawaii has seen some encouraging numbers is recent days and officials are optimistic it could safely open up to tourists soon. Wednesday was the third consecutive day with no new coronavirus cases statewide. Lt. Gov. Josh Green says he hopes to reopen the state’s tourism industry by July.
“By having people tested beforehand, it reduces the risk very greatly on all those good people that are going to be taking care of the tourists,”” Green told Hawaii News Now. Green says the state will likely require a negative COVID-19 test from any passenger before arriving in Hawaii. He says travelers from Japan, New Zealand and Australia should be allowed first.
Economic Impact Is Grim
The near future still looks grim for Hawaii Tourism. Total number of visitors this year is expected to top out at 3.5 million, a sharp decrease from recent years. Additionally, only about 35% of unemployed travel industry workers will likely return to their jobs this year.
When Will Hawaii Re-Open?
While the news out of Hawaii isn’t all rosy, things are moving in the right direction for a reopening of Hawaii in July. That news is great for the many tourists waiting to visit the Hawaiian Islands and especially for the locals who rely on the tourism industry for work.
Are you going to plan a post COVID-19 Hawaii vacation?
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Kimo is a complete idiot- mandatory quarantines affect many things. As you say, tourism is not the majority of the economy. Guess what? The majoity of air travellers are not tourists! You must be right up Ige’s bum, because he doesn’t follow the science, either. The real science- not W.H.O./Fauci projections- shows that lockdowns and quarantines for people that are not sick haven’t really made significant differences, though social distancing does. Ige operates out of fear. The numbers for places that never shutdown at all are not much higher, and they have all the antibodies (no second wave!) Also it has been found that asymptomatic cases (and children) do not spread as much as previously thought. The super spreaders are, of course, the people with symptoms. Quarantines and lockdowns are based on fear and projections that have been proven to be drastically off. You must have a job that is not affected and you really should watch something other fake news CNN so you can hear some truth.
Scott is obvious someone from the mainland desperately working at one of the many companies that depend on tourist, surely he not a scientist as he shown he knows nothing about it. Hopefully more tourist business shut down so people not from here can relocated back to the mainland, hawaii does not need people like you here. Out of the 10.5 million visitors (not living here) that traveled to Hawaii last year over 80% are tourist. COVID so called fact change like the weather everyday is a new story of how it affects and spreads but the fact are COVID in Hawaii started from asymptomatic tourist that show symptoms soon after returning home and after arrival they did not get on the plane when they did not arrive sick. After visiting and spreading it all over Hawaii they all said sorry they had no idea they were infected. If we opened our flood gate with over 250,000 daily visitors (unable to social distance) we would have hundreds of infected people arriving spreading COVID through the islands once again without their knowledge of it. Uncontrolled tourism is not worth our lives nor the environmental damage its has caused throughout Hawaii. We are happy the quarantine has been extended until end of July and expect it will continue to extend as the 2nd wave is now starting to hit the world.
We just cancelled an 18 day Holland America cruise to Hawaii leaving from San Diego in November with much regret but just don’t trust Hawaii’s Governor not to pull a fast one on tourists. He seems a little nuts to us and we live in crazy Maryland. We have been there 4 times before on cruises but had nonetheless been looking foreward to another trip.
Can’t blame you there. It is hard to make a decision when policy is all over the place for sure.
Thats a great idea most cruise lines in to Hawaii have already announced they have discontinued service until Mid 2021 if your cruise was not already cancelled high chance it would be cancelled later, better to plan a more stable trip.
Great news!! Hawaii has just announced they plan to extend the 14-day quarantine for tourist past the 1 July reopening. Hopefully Hawaii remains closed throughout the year the only way to really control the spread is to stop the tourist from bringing it to the islands. Mainland #s are starting to rise again as a 2nd wave is approaching.
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/05/28/live-governor-mayors-outline-latest-steps-reopen-hawaiis-economy/
If there is no vaccine then do you stay closed forever?. The possibility of learning to live with it is very real. I would think Hawaii would in real trouble as I wouldn’t run an office there for services, utilities are expensive and you will only have a certain recruitment availability.
Thats like saying if the sky falls what do you do? Of course there will be a vaccine its already being tested, then people will have a choice to be protected or not. If we were to pretended there will be no vaccine then of course we stay closed as long as it takes to ensure its save, our lives are worth more then tourism income. Hawaii is not equipped like the mainland a handle a huge outbreak, it would devastate the islands not worth it just to pleasure tourist. If tourism was restricted for years without outside income the repercussion is to raise taxes for people who live here, oh well so be it, I rather pay more to stay safe then risk life just to accommodate tourist on a pleasure trip. If you want ocean and sun just travel to one of the thousand of tropical island within asia don’t come to Hawaii. Understand most Hawaiian want to keep Hawaii natural Hawaii and keep it from turn it into a tourist Disneyland redistricting tourist has helped the islands heal as more tourism based business collapse, hopefully more hotels will also collapse. Our oceans are now cleaning themselves, less pollution, and chemicals (sunscreen etc.) in our ocean, fish are returning, coral finally has a chance to flourish, locals have been able to visit Waikiki Beach for the first time clean without trash and overcrowding. First time in years I can actually drive on the H1 without standstill traffic jams!! It would be a dream if tourism was shut down forever (I would happily pay more tax to stop tourism) or at least put drastic control limits on daily passengers able to enter inorder to preserve our land. Maybe this COVID is a lesson learned and Hawaii could implement a reservation system with visitor caps to Hawaii just as we have for parks, monuments, hunting etc. instead of having open flood gates which is to extreme, greater then our environment is able to handle and destroying the land.
I think your nuts pal, if you don’t allow visitors including US mainland visitors kiss your economy goodbye. Cost of living in Hawaii is disproportionatly high and I would assume everything in a supermarket is having to be shipped or airfreighted to you.
Also, a vaccine is still not a given mate. Of course I hope there will be one though.
Feeling is mutual, tourism in Hawaii only counts for 20-30% of the economy, hawaii does not survive because of tourism. If anything tourism causes much more environmental damage to the island then the 20-30% income helps. The world is not all about money I prefer to live in a clean thriving environment then receive the tax break tourism provides. Look at it from the other side if tourism stopped what happens? All of the business & hotels that were created only for the tourist would all fail, these businesses owners that are only here to make a buck would then be forced to shut down and leave Hawaii which would then equalize the economy by reducing the population. Majority of residents do not depend on tourism and would love to push out all of the tourist business which are mostly owned by foreigners and/or rich from mainland. I’m not saying close Hawaii completely to tourists im saying we need a cap/reservation system to limit tourism just as we do for any area we want to environmentally protect. We don’t need another hotel abd big infstructors built, more rental cara causing traffic and pollution we need to drastically reduce it all to protect Hawaii so there still something left to see for future generations as over tourism is destroying the land.
Yes, we are going in December (arriving on Pearl Harbor Day) for 10 days…two islands. Can’t wait.
Yes ! Hoping things will open up in HI for a September trip. Hope the flight will be on the non-stop EWR-HNL.
Hoping to go in September from the UK but how will I obtain a negative test that is recent?
Hi hospital/CVS, etc I need to get tested to go to Hawaii.
Are you showing symptoms?
No I am not.
No you cant have a test.
All they have to do is tell me what I need to do to get tested and I’m packing my bags
Headed there in late October. Booked via Turkish miles on United for 15k RT. Fingers crossed they are up and running, or at least a shell of that.
John – As a Hawaii resident in the Hotel industry, I’m really confident we’ll be open by then….and bonus, the beaches will still remain less full and much more like paradise. You’ll love it! Trust me!
Most likely Hawaii will be closed again in Oct. It should open again in July by end of July tourist will bring the virus back to Hawaii the # will start going back up in Aug more will die then Hawaii will be closed again during the second wave through the winter when the #s start to skyrocket again. Surely there will be a small window Hawaii will be reopen this year.