Island on the brink of financial collapse with fewer than 20 vacation arrivals daily.
272 thoughts on “Half of Kauai Businesses May Fail | Visitors Are Not Returning”
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Home » Blog » Hawaii Travel Tips » Half of Kauai Businesses May Fail | Visitors Are Not Returning
For more than half a century, good economists, politicians who have not “sold out”, and progressive business people have been advocating for diversity in Hawaii’s economy. Professionals have argued that having your “eggs” in one basket-tourism-is a death sentence. 911 should have been a “wake up” call, but our politicians went back to business as usual, once that was just a memory.
Tourism has been our states cash cow, and it was just too easy. No creativity involved.
There was a time in history when our Native Hawaiian population was over 1 million AND we were self sustaining. However, old boy government tactics have no room for learning from the Natives, or the past. They want big, tourist dollars and they want it now!
This is what greed does.
It’s going to take a lot of effort, but there are good people, local practitioners and professionals out there that can help reshape Hawaii’s economic future, however, the reigns have to be pulled from the hands of the blind, power drunk, money hungry people in charge. Just two cents from a kupuna. Me ke aloha pumehana. Hawaii needs healing, and I’m not referring to covid-19.
Side note maybe, but I appreciate irony….I can’t be the only one who noticed that in order to leave this comment, I have to type my email. Immediately below my now typed email, I am given the option of checking a box, which would “Sign me up for Hawaii vacation deals!”
*face palm*
For the benefit of our communities Hawai’i should have a brief 3 day quarantine followed by a second test across the board. Keep it consistent but guided by the smaller islands. Travelers could know what to expect and locals would be more welcoming.
Im lucky enough to be able to quarantine in my family home. If I was just a regular visitor or a tourist, I wouldn’t come. Resort bubbles sound great but I wouldn’t be down for paying the resort bubble price to be stuck in one place for 3 days. Those hotel fees should be less.
Hawaii as a whole has done a great job at keeping the numbers low but you killed the state in doing so. Testing and masks are great however even people that have followed the rules completely are still getting it. Hawaii is trying to avoid the inevitable.
Time to stop the 10 day quarantine! Maui and O’ahu businesses are doing well. Look on at the other islands for answers. Anyone could see that the businesses were going to go under! Was on Kaua’i during Thanksgiving, and business was strong!
YET another example of government overreach. When will people understand that “the government” doesn’t know any better, and that in fact they care very little about us regular folks? The smaller the government, the better.
This is not a surprise. We love Kauai but they have made it so difficult that the vacation is no longer vacation but just stressful. We had planned to there with our 3 kids for our 45th anniversary earlier this month and had to cancel.
I would actually love to be there with so few visitors, the last 2 trips there were soooo many people it was ridiculous. I will hope that this is merely a reset. The businesses will fail but hopefully, in the future the island will recover and be better than before the pandemic.
We have delayed our trip and are now planning for December of 2022. We do’t want to harm the population by bringing covid to the island and respect their desire to protect their people but will wait to visit until this is under control. I want to spend my vacation dollars on vacation, not multiple tests and quarantine
Travel to Hawaii falling off so badly is not surprising. With all the unknowns and stress involved, it’s just to much for most people to want to deal with. Plus many people are not traveling at this time anyway. My thinking is, when the single shot vaccine comes on board that should cut the vaccination time down by 50%. That should be a very big help. Also, the state of Hawaii moving the target every week has not been helpful.
Aloha Guys
Hi Roy.
Thanks for being a part of the conversation for so long.
Aloha.
I think one of the most difficult things for us is what’s happening with the Hawaiian restaurants. Hawaiian restaurants aren’t just good they are some of the best in the world. One of our favorite restaurants is the Kalaheo Steakhouse. The food is special and so are the drinks and it is very popular with the locals. It has permanently closed after many years. That restaurant has its roots with a local polynesian guy who moved onto Maui’s upcountry and started another restaurant. On the way from Poipu to Kalaheo there was a Hawaiian couple who sold fresh fish from their home. That’s gone also. On the Big Island the Blue Dragon restaurant which served locally produced food and drink. They also had a stage where they had local musicians and entertainment. It’s now gone. On Maui Sarento’s has also disappeared. All of this is very hurtful as the islands are losing what has made them special. I noticed that the mayor of the Big Island who put the second covid test in place did not get enough votes in the primary to run again. I had an interesting incident happen with the people who I rented the condo through. They rent high end homes and condos as well as more traditional properties. I had to call and tell them that I had to use their address on the safe travels site as I did not know the address of the condo we were staying at that time. She told me if the state wants to have a secondary contact they should figure it out themselves and not rely on the rental company or the visitors to do their work. She was a polynesian woman and was very annoyed with what the state was doing. I don’t think most Hawaiians are annoyed by what the state is attempting with trying to keep them safe. It’s just moved into a state of ridiculousness with visitors and locals alike. I lived on Oahu for a few years many years ago and we have a good many friends who live in the islands. I surely hope the state of Hawaii is able keep what’s special about it.
Stay safe Guys
My girlfriend and I arrived on Maui, not Kauai, on March 11th this year, right as the pandemic was hitting its stride. We had paid for our vacation a year before and were really excited. Unfortunately, as the vacation went on many of the natives on the island were downright threatening to us when we would attempt to visit some of the beaches. They would stand at the entrance to the beaches guarding them with big signs that said tourists go home. We went home and we will never return. Be careful what you ask for.
There’s thousands of locals on Kauai who are too scared to voice their opinion about mayor Derek Kawakami’s horrible decisions. He’s acting like a selfish child only thinking about saving lives for a virus with a 99% survival rate and the cost is thousands of hard working middle class people out of work. We all lost our jobs, lost great benefits and retirement plans and life insurance, we are not sympathized with by the community, we are tired but not strong enough to fight against the machine that is the political control of our island. It is completely a lie that we are going to be ok. How are we ok? We alive but broke and hundreds have moved off island in search of greener grass. No one asks how is the unemployed are doing. No one here gives a hoot about us, they just say “get another job”. So we sit here becoming poorer by the day all while our mayor is livi by with a full paycheck and not worried about paying his bills. How long can we go on like this? The rich are moving here and buying up house and land not even glimpsing at the place! It is insanity what Kauai has to deal with. Majority of businesses closed down and you won’t hear about it.
Thank you for your sincere post,I know this is the situation for many people on Kauai.The retired,the employed, speak idyllically of the return to “ back in the day”,the turtles,dolphins,lack of traffic. They are too selfish to understand past their utopian bubble the impact that the isolationist policies are having on many many Kauai residents.