That’s right. According to Hawaii’s Lieutenant Governor Josh Green, Hawaii may reopen to tourism in July. However, this reopening won’t be a free-for-all. There are plans in the works to mitigate risks to island residents.
As of Monday, Hawaii has enjoyed three consecutive days of no new infections. What’s more, over the past couple of weeks, things have slowly begun to reopen. In fact, over the next week, expect dine-in restaurants to reopen, along with salons and certain outdoor activities and venues such as the Honolulu Zoo, Sea Life Park, and Kualoa Ranch. Combine this with Hawaii’s reliance on tourism and its easy to see why there’s a push to reopen the state to tourism.
Industry Response to Reopening
Say what you want, but the people actually serving our visitors should have a say in how the reopening happens. And, guess what? There’s a lot of hesitation among industry employees to begin reopening the islands to outside visitors. In fact, according to Hawaii News Now, hotel employees are saying they won’t go back to work until they know their workplace is safe.
For its part, Unite Here! Local 5, the hotel workers union here in Hawaii, is demanding that all employees be provided with PPE and better training. Oh, and they want to ensure that everyone laid off will get their jobs back.
The union also says that an ongoing concern is that, when reopen, if people begin getting sick, it could be severely damaging to our economy. After all, people won’t want to come to Hawaii if there are risks of getting and dying from doing so.
And, you know what? Concerns about reputation risk and economic impacts of rushing a return to tourism are sentiments I touched on I’m my last post. Workers’ reluctance to return to work was also a point I brought up too.
Hawaii Reopening in July?
All of the above are at the top of Lt. Governor Josh Green’s mind as he works with our task for to get our economy started again. So, while he’d like to get tourists to the islands again beginning in just over a month, thing’s won’t be the same as they were before.
Reopening Strategy
The best way to protect Hawaii from reinfection is, obviously, to prevent the virus from returning here to begin with. To accomplish this, Green says that the state will likely require a negative COVID-19 test from any passengers arriving in Hawaii. That entails getting tested within 72 hours of your flight to Hawaii. If you don’t, the plan is to test you at the airport. Which means you can’t leave the airport until you get a (rapid) test result. Those that test positive will likely be placed under guarded quarantine. The logistics of all this, though, are still in the works.
Now, with cases still on the rise in states like California (one of our single largest sources of visitors), Green suggests we reopen to New Zealand, Australia, and Japan first. Why these countries? Because, according to Green, these countries have the virus under control.
I question Green’s inclusion of Japan, as their response to the virus has been questionable lately. But, New Zealand and Australia are both shining examples of what can be done in terms of infection control. Japan, however, does have things under better control than most other places around the world. What’s more, 20% of Hawaii’s visitors come from Japan, while those same visitors account for 30% of visitor spending in the islands.
Tourism Won’t Immediately Return Anyway
With COVID-19 still having significant impacts around the world, state officials believe it’ll be about six years before tourism levels return to pre-pandemic levels. In fact, this year, they’re estimating that there will be just 3.4 million visitor arrivals. For reference, there were 10 million visitor arrivals in 2019. And, as a result, those same officials believe that of the 242,000 that lost their jobs over the past two months, 150,000 of them will likely remain jobless at the end of the year.
Hawaii May Reopen to Tourism in July, Final Thoughts
So, it seems that, even if we begin reopening to tourists in about a month, not everyone will be welcome. That is if Lt. Governor Josh Green’s recommendations are taken, which isn’t a guarantee. Oh, and, that’s if the hoteliers and the union can come to an agreement too. But, I have to give hem credit for trying to balance economic needs AND safety. That’s hard to do given our predicament.
Will this proposed methodology appease everyone? No. Just like how people are threatening to sue the Walt Disney Company for requiring masks when they reopen. And, I’m sure people are going to be furious and try to sue casino operators over changes they’ve made. But, clearly, our world is no longer the place we once knew it to be. So, changes, at least temporarily, need to happen.