Change had been brewing in Hawaii travel for years. Covid was the catalyst to fast-forward the inevitable.
133 thoughts on “Hawaii Travel Re-Boot Underway: Will This Work?”
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Change had been brewing in Hawaii travel for years. Covid was the catalyst to fast-forward the inevitable.
Comments are closed.
I value: original shops, not mass produced Tshirts; staying in a rental home; cultural experiences, visiting natural sites and beaches; not being taxed out of my mind.
How to limit the burden to HI? Limit airlines expanding service to HI. Home rentals should be on HI resident’s property, no absentee/mainland landlord. HTA needs better goals, mgt. and control with budget, obviously there’s no problem drawing tourists if you’re being overrun! Please don’t make it the playground of only the rich.
The best thing for Hawaii’s travel industry? Do what Florida has done:
• Make vaccines and mask wearing a personal choice
• Trust natural immunity
• Stop being afraid
There are many reasons that Florida has the lowest rate in the US, but most of them can be equally applied to Hawaii. The only ones that can’t are the vaccine and mask mandates – I submit to anyone willing to discuss: if the mandates make no diff, then why keep them around?
Here’s what a lack of reason and logic has done because of DeSantis (that is if we could actually see the public health data that he withholds):
Cases: 3,704,013 Deaths:61,789
Hawaii:
Cases: 88,440 Deaths: 1,033
Florida
Deaths per 100,000: 0.17
Daily average deaths: 35.9
Hawaii
Deaths per 100,000: 0.13
Daily average deaths: 1.9
Facts matter. Yours are wrong.
COVID statistics are COVID statistics are COVID statistics. China vs. Switzerland, U.K. vs. Brazil, Florida vs. Hawaii. These comparisons tell us precious little except COVID kills everywhere it travels.
I think we are better advised to allow DeSantis to worry about Florida and Ige to worry about Hawaii. Each has their own goals and methodologies. Each serves and is accountable to their own electorate. If either isn’t performing, their respective constituents can fix it.
“To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.”
― Thomas Paine, The American Crisis
There is a difference between c’est la vie and being pono. Leaving it to voters brought us close to authoritarianism.
Hello ROSSB
“Stop being afraid.”
I believe this is good advice.
Respect COVID – yes. Fear COVID – no.
“He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.”
― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays
I have been a frequent visitor of Maui for 50 years. Currently I spend about 4 months a year in Maui. I feel a big missing piece is transportation options. A visitor has almost no option but to rent a car unless they never leave their lodging. Why are there so few safe bike paths? Why does the West Maui Bus only come once per hour? Why are the shuttle options from the airport so limited? The lack of transportation options create so much more traffic – which makes everyone unhappy.
I agree with this. We were on Maui Jan. 2021, rented a car and enjoyed out stay very much. We returned to Maui Jun. 2021, did not rent a car (due to pricing, but that didn’t detour us) instead we bought a bus pass. It was troublesome that all the lines weren’t running (we stayed in Kihei) but we figured out where they went and based our time on its schedule.
More transportation options would be awesome.
We have visited HAWAII annually for almost 30 years. In fact when we retired 4 years ago we started coming for 4 to seven weeks at a time sometimes twice a year. Of course we always recommended to our friends, but if you want to keep piling the taxes and fees on. Visitors and it starts to cost so much more to visit Hawaii, we won’t be coming. The other thing that COVID taught us living in Minnesota, there are -Lenny easy places in the US to visit that are cheaper with less regulations or masks
We visit twice a year for the past almost 10yrs. We have visited before and 2x during Covid. We were close to moving to HI – but have decided on another state. My feeling is we have therapeutics that can help. We should be concentrating on this more. Covid is not going away. We need to learn to live with it, know who is vulnerable and protect them. Fear is hard in so many ways – we chose to live life fully. Restrictions cause more harm than good IMO. Aloha
Hawaii is part of the United States. We all travel across America. I have come to know several people who live in oregon from hawaii. We should treat all of us with kindness we are allowed to travel in our counyry. Hawaii can not love our financial benefits but want to be considered seperate from U S. We all deal with tourism in all our states. It just people moving about
I used to l8ve on Kauai for 17 years. I still have friends who live there. It is sad to hear of the restrictions due to the virus when we have been living freely here in Texas for a long time. I was also shocked to hear about added fees for tourists being implemented. I used to tell everyone they should experience Hawaii at some point, but now I don’t. Too much greed & control.
Hi guys
My humble thoughts (from frequent & avid HI visitor since 1971):
The HTA and HI state Governor and government must get their acts together and “bite the bullet” by reversing decisions that turn away visitors.
Example par excellence is the very current fashion of increasing the TAT tax to unconscionable levels ——eg-“what were they thinking?—-how would that improve tourism?????? Definitely not for me & my family!!!!
Folks, count me out. You area way “over the top!
Good luck. Jim
Many changes with Hawaii travel. My family loves to vacation in Maui every year but decided, due to all the uncertainties, to book a place in the Bahamas in 2022. First time traveling there so we will see how it goes.
Hopefully, Hawaii develops a plan welcome tourist back with open arms in the future!
Aloha
We was to Kauai the first two weeks November. The masks requirements are completely unnecessary,except maybe in very bad air areas. The masks was absolutely a nuisance to I and my wife. The Covid rate from tourists is next to zaero. We need to get away from all these mandates and get on with living. We are from Montana which got away from all these mandates, we are doing OK.
I lived on Oahu for nearly ten years and traveled all islands extensively working in the travel industry. My wife and I visit Maui for 5 weeks each winter. Last winter we skipped because of the Covid craziness. This January we are coming again. The very worse thing that can happen to Hawaii tourism is an explosion of anti-Haole behavior and/or violence toward visitors.
There has been anti Haole behavior forever. I lived in Hi as a kid in junior high school and went to school in fear every day due to gangs of Hawaiians that were looking to hurt us. It is the dirty little secret of Hawaii.