While Hawaii travel may not be soaring physically at the moment, stocks say it is about to. Big time. Word earlier today that an effective vaccine could become widely available next year has resulted in a huge and immediate boon for the Hawaii travel industry. Hawaiian Airlines stock for example at the time of publishing is up nearly 50% today! The bellwether’s stock is the single most important barometer of Hawaii travel sentiment. That comes as other travel stocks are also up hugely as visitors become poised to resume Hawaii travel after taking time off since early this year. There is obviously a much larger than expected pent-up demand for Hawaii vacations.
So what will Hawaii travel be like between now and then, and thereafter?
First, travel will likely never be the same as pre-COVID. That’s becoming readily apparent to everyone. Age Wave CEO Ken Dychtwald, whose company is a think tank on aging, said, “In the past few months, the entire world has had a near-death experience. We’ve been forced to stop and think: I could die, or someone I love could die. When those events happen, people think about what matters and what they will do differently.”
And so it will be with travel. For the foreseeable future, we will all, by desire or requirement, be taking additional risk avoidance measures on Hawaii vacations. Mask wearing ‘may’ continue to be the norm for the next couple of years since not everyone will be vaccinated.
For Hawaii travelers, age 60 and above, who make up 15% of all island visitors, Dr. Mehrdad Ayati, Stanford University School of Medicine and adviser to the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging said, “What we never calculated was that a pandemic could totally change the dialogue.”
How Hawaii travel will directly benefit.
At least until we are much further along, US domestic travel is set to largely replace foreign travel. After all, your health insurance works here, and you can simply better control everything while in the U.S. Hawaii also uniquely brings many of the exotic aspects of international travel home to a safer domestic paradigm.
Premium class will grow.
Those who have had the ability to choose how to spend their travel dollars may now more frequently than before spend some of that money to get more room and have further distance from fellow passengers.
BOH tip: When that isn’t possible to go First/Business, one trick that we’ve written about before and use ourselves is to buy three seats for two passengers, instead of two. With more $99 airfares ahead, that makes more sense than ever.
Hawaii travel will market health and safety as commodities.
Hawaii hotels and Hawaii vacation rental companies have already begun to advertise their safety protocols and that will expand exponentially to include access to medical and more. The marketing messaging here includes we clean more, we disinfect more, we have more access to health services, and therefore, at the end of the day, we offer you a better, safer choice. We predict more growth in vacation rentals too since they allow you to limit your exposure to others.
Hawaii cruises are set to resume.
Taking health and safety to a new level will be cruise ships, which will necessarily focus on complete medical care and comfort. What will become of the mega cruise ships? Will smaller ships be more what consumers resonate with or will the hospital-like capabilities of mega-ships be more attractive.
NCL’s all-Hawaii cruise has extended its service suspension until 2021. That further delay is needed to allow time to prepare the ship to meet the new government health measures and requirements recently announced concerning resuming sailing.
Hawaii dining will market safety too.
Expect Hawaii’s restaurants to bring to your attention all that they do to provide a healthy environment. You’ll see those people who provide cleaning and disinfecting services to be prominently featured, in much the way a host would have been before all this began.
Restrooms won’t be left out of changes.
We can be assured of almost universal no-touch doors, sinks, and toilets wherever in Hawaii you go.
Beat of Hawaii © photo along the Mahaulepu Heritage Trail on Kauai.
Get Breaking Hawaii Travel News
Aloha! Traveling from Maui to Oahu round trip from Dec 7-11 return— what do we need to do to get back in Maui?
I understand no Covid to get into Oahu.
Mahalo!
Hi MaryMargaret.
You will need to test within 72 hours of your flight to Maui.
Aloha.
We are planning on visiting beautiful Maui in February. SW has airfare from Las Vegas for 691 RT for 2. Do you think we’ll get a better deal if we wait or should we book now? Mahalo for your input.
Hi Linda.
There are $206 RT airfares on United Airlines and Delta Airlines in February. Hope that helps.
Aloha.
Thank you but how do we find Vault please?
Hi Bev.
On the state website, on Hawaiian Airlines website, or here: https://www.vaulthealth.com/covid.
Aloha.
Aloha to all (particularly you Kauai Guys who run this thing),
Welcome back, visitors who have tested covid negative. Mahalo for complying with our travel requirements. I know they are a pain. But everything about a 100 year pandemic is a pain or worse.
I feel I did not do a good job of trying to explain Hawai’i’s concern about imported diseases when I wrote about bringing your dog here. If you are not familiar with Hawai’ian history, here’s the long story short about infectious diseases. Native Hawai’ians had no immunity to Western diseases that were not usually fatal to Westerners. But not that many years after the first Western sailor set foot upon a Hawai’ian island, Western contact continued, The Native Hawai’ian population was decimated by measles, tuberculosis, and other diseases.
Aloha includes the concept of caring for others.Here on Maui, almost all of us wear our mask because we know it protects others. It’s aloha.
And on a separate note, I want to
apologize to our Canadian visitors who can’t get one of our approved tests in Canada, so have to stop in the US to be tested. Sorry we didn’t do mo bettah for you.
Hi Nancy.
Thanks for sharing from Maui.
Aloha.
Canada won’t let US residents in at all, except very limited circumstances, and then only with two week quarantine. When will their government start allowing US visitors in with a pre-travel test? At least they can still come to US and get a test here to go to Hawaii.
Thank you for keeping everyone up-to-date on what’s going on. I just returned to the islands after 6 weeks on the mainland. I used Vault (preferred provider) for my test, which I highly recommend. I took my test Thursday noon, marked it for Hawaii travel (this gets priority processing as the Vault zoom assistant explained), dropped it at UPS, received a notification they received it Friday morning (8:00am) and I had my results that afternoon at 2:45pm. So, I had results in about 24 hours, including UPS delivery to them!
Hi Marci.
Thanks for the update on your testing. Appreciate it.
Aloha.
We have had reservations since before Covid for a 3 bedroom condo on the big island. There will be 6 of us and we are concerned the restaurants won’t be open. We don’t want to have to cook for 6 daily in our condo.
Cannot wait to revisit next summer, the Aloha spirit we do miss. 🙏 for a fast, safe recovery for everyone in Hawaii. Hang on!
This is a response to Grant R.
We live in California. We ordered our text through Vault. It is a trusted partner for Hawaii. It is a saliva test taken via Zoom. They guarantee results within the travel window. Make sure u have the times right for testing. I believe it is from the time of your second flight. We are going Thanksgiving and I ordered our test and received them the next day. It says to order a week in advance but I was just a little paranoid. I ordered on Monday and received them the next day. Will send a follow up after our trip.
Thank you Sara. I really appreciate your response. I was looking into Vault at BOH’s recommendation. I think the big issue is that you need to drop off the sample to UPS who won’t be operating on Christmas day so the test result would just sit until the 26th. I will re-check with Vault if the have a plan for this. I’m also checking with Kaiser if they have any way of expediting the results given the Christmas holiday.
To make matters worse, the latest news is that anyone travelling without posting their results prior to travel will have the mandatory 14-day quarantine. So my plan of uploading the results after arriving at HLN but before arriving at KOA won’t work. I may try and see if I can reschedule the trip to depart on the 29th but not sure if the change fees for the flight will be worth it.
We just got back from a lovely,restful Maui vacation.ot was a little stressful hoping for our tests to come back in time so we got two (free) just in case. It was confusing upon arrival in HNL because they had changed our flights from direct to Maui from LAX and of course we didn’t know what we were doing. Kudos to Hawaiian Air for their social distancing and to all the airport workers for being helpful and patient as we navigated unfamiliar territory. We’re used to wearing masks so no big deal
Thrilled to be able to see family and relax on Maui again at last!!!
As is evident here, plenty of pragmatic thoughtful people are having a great time in Hawaii.
Hawaii is as beautiful as ever, some are enjoying a beautiful chain of islands as well as interacting with people that are happy they are here.
Tourists that are respectful and caring about others are very appreciated right now during these difficult for all times.
And not only is it less crowded, it appears by the posts on here the Q-anon/anti maskers crowd are staying away too!
Have to wonder if Hawaii could legally require a vaccine to enter and really enhance our safety!
It wouldn’t be that hard to require a test and a vaccine and when you got to Hawaii a mask and social distancing wouldn’t be necessary.
Aloha,
Just returned to Phoenix from Oahu yesterday and I want to thank you for all the up-to-date information you publish daily. It was so very helpful prior to our departure on 10/28 with the Covid testing etc. Our flight over was so full that American Airlines was offering up to $450 a seat to take another flight. We were staying at the Marriott Ko Olina and walked down to the beach to check out the chair situation and started talking to two of the young men working there. The one young man said 11/1 was their first day back and he thanked us for being there because if it weren’t for us he wouldn’t have his job. He was so happy to be back to work. Our entire stay was totally delightful and we were always treated well and we were out and about everyday eating and sightseeing. Hawaii was wonderful!!
Hi Karen Z.
Thanks so much for that great report.
Aloha.
Thanks for all of the great updates on travel to Hawaii.
Tricky question. We’re flying out on December 28th from SMF-HNL-KOA. The 72-hour window starts on Christmas Day and I’m not expecting anyone to offer testing that day so we’ll get it done on 12/26 in the morning and hope to have results by the time we land. If we land in HNL without updated results, will we be quarantined there and miss our connecting flight to KOA until we have confirmed results?
Second question- do you know of anyone in CA that offers guaranteed 24-48 hour testing turnarounds?
Thank you!
Hi Grant.
You will be able to go on to Kona to quarantine without results. We’ll leave that to others on guaranteed, as we aren’t aware of any. The best reports from visitors’ mentions been about Vault.
Aloha.
We did CVS on 10/27 (last appointments of the day 3:40 and 3:50 pm) for our flight out 10/30 morning out of San Diego. My husband had his results the afternoon of 10/29 and I had mine that evening. I agree with making sure you do the drop down box “Travel to HI”.
Hi, CVS doesn’t guarantee 24-48hrs, but we got ours back in 36hrs & 48hrs. Our friends used them last week and received them in 24hrs. Make sure u say “Travel to HI” per the drop down menu. We all used different locations in SD County.
Check out my comment
While today’s vaccine announcement is great news, I’m more concerned about the increasing COVID-19 cases on the Islands since October 15, which I fear will result in another shutdown. An “open-close” scenario would be devastating to the Islands. Finally, I apologize for all of my Mainland (CA?) Haole comments that are rude, ignorant and offensive to the Hawaiian citizens. When are they going to understand the real limitations of the Hawaii health care system. Trey don’t live in SF or LA or Seattle. Aloha
Just FYI on “treating tourists like dogs.” We are lucky enough to not have rabies in Hawai’i. You cannot bring in a dog from the Mainland without expensive and extensive inoculation and testing procedures, including an airport examination of your dog’s documents in Hawai’i. Failure to meet these requirements causes your dog to be quarantined for a long period of time in a state owned facility at your expense. We are a unique state in our geographic isolation. I believe some people from the Mainland don’t understand our need to protect
against a pandemic.
And darn, I thought I was the only one to figure out buy the third seat, too! If we all do it, they’ll be more room on planes.
Because I love you all, I beg you to never ever get this vaccine. It is the most dangerous vax ever created. Look at the Children’s Health Defense website (Robert F Kennedy Jr org) for real information about it you will never see on pharma sponsored main stream news.
The anti-vaxers strike again! Folks, if we NEVER get back to normal, you can thank the anti-vaxers and anti-maskers for it. Personally, I would like to thank the state of Hawaii for ignoring these conspiracy theorists and put common sense policies into place.
Hopefully once the vaccine is widely available the state will mandate proof of vaccination before allowing travel to the state. Personally, we are scheduled to come to Hawaii at the end of May 2021, and I hope and pray by then we will be able to get the vacine and travel safely in spite of the conspiracy theories.
Amazed this reply of yours was published. Very rude in my opinion.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion and “Mr yay I love to get vaccinated “ you are not all knowing nor necessarily correct in your opinion either.
People should have the right to chose what they want to put in their body.
Their own opinion yes, their own set of facts, no. This is especially true in a case like mask-wearing and vaccines where their opinion affects a lot of other people. Then deciding to follow conspiracy theories rather than science is a slap in the face of the rest of us, and a lot of us are tired of it.
In terms of Hawaii requiring visitors to be vaccinated, it’s just like the requirement to be tested in order to enter the state without a quarantine. They could do exactly the same with a vaccine requirement. You either provide proof of vaccination upon arrival, or you must quarantine for 14 days.
Fact- most of the mainland has been wearing masks for months and the numbers still went up
Fact- nobody will know the long term side affects of this vaccine before people start using it for a 99%+ recovery rate
Fact- Hawaii is the hardest hit state economically from Covid
Fact-people need to work and can’t live off the government forever
Fact- Covid deaths have been greatly manipulated when people have had other terminal conditions cause of death is still listed as Covid
I don’t want to see anyone get sick either but if someone gets a test 72hrs before coming to visit me, I’m certain they won’t be what causes spread on the islands.
Well what I think both of you agree on is the testing works…..
Fact – The average mask-wearing rate in the US is around 50%. Some states are better, some are worse, but in general, the politicization of mask-wearing has meant that we are nowhere near where we need to be in order to stop, or even slow down, the spread of the coronavirus.
Fact – The CDC just issued new guidance on mask-wearing. “SARS-CoV-2 infection is transmitted predominately by respiratory droplets generated when people cough, sneeze, sing, talk, or breathe. CDC recommends community use of masks, specifically non-valved multi-layer cloth masks, to prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Masks are primarily intended to reduce the emission of virus-laden droplets (“source control”), which is especially relevant for asymptomatic or presymptomatic infected wearers who feel well and may be unaware of their infectiousness to others, and who are estimated to account for more than 50% of transmissions.1,2 Masks also help reduce the inhalation of these droplets by the wearer (“filtration for personal protection”). The community benefit of masking for SARS-CoV-2 control is due to the combination of these effects; individual prevention benefit increases with increasing numbers of people using masks consistently and correctly.”
Fact – Agree with you that there hasn’t been any long term study on the effects of a brand new vaccine. So the question is, what’s the bigger risk? However, it should also be noted that if enough people choose not to take the vaccine, that we will not reach “herd immunity”. Therefore, it’s not just YOU that you are deciding for, it’s all the rest of the population that can not be vaccinated like very young children. Therefore, I think from a public health point of view, while you have every right to decide not to take the vaccine, the public has a right to be protected from YOU as well. So things like mandatory vaccination in order to attend sporting events, travel, or go to school, etc. seem reasonable.
.. ran out of room …
Fact- Hawaii is the hardest-hit state economically from Covid, I don’t know if that’s the case, we are all hard hit, but I imagine with Hawaii’s reliance on tourism it’s got to be bad. That’s the point of the mask, test, and I hope soon vaccine mandates. With those in place, Hawaii can re-open to tourism and I can visit the place I love so much without fear of catching something or giving it to someone else.
Fact-people need to work and can’t live off the government forever – No one is suggesting that they should. All the things that are being put in place are designed to help avoid exactly that.
Fact- Covid deaths have been greatly manipulated when people have had other terminal conditions cause of death is still listed as Covid – This is what I’m talking about. No public health office I know of agrees with this statement.
I don’t want to see anyone get sick either but if someone gets a test 72hrs before coming to visit me, I’m certain they won’t be what causes spread on the islands. – Again, more misinformation. While testing is a good thing, there are cracks that will allow people to slip through. note that the infection rate has gone up since the testing based re-opening.
The bottom line is that if you want re-opening, please stop fighting measures that will help Hawaii re-open and allow safe tourism to the islands.
I will not be rushing to get a “fast tracked” vaccine, especially for a virus that has such a low statistical probability of death. If Hawaii mandates a vaccine before a visit, we’ll spend our vacation dollars elsewhere.
Unfortunately, the state cannot control interstate travel, nor can they say any unvaccinated can’t travel…just like now they can’t tell you everyone on the plane has been tested, because even without testing they have to allow them to fly! Good luck with getting people to wear masks for 5 minutes after they release a vaccine…
Conspiracy theories keep The National Enquirer in business. Fun to read, for sure, but useless in real life. Follow the science.
Thank you for always being so timely with the information you provide! While there are clearly some travelers, based on the comments so far, who will stay away from Hawaii as long as scientifically and medically embraced precautions are in place (masks, testing), there is a whole other group of travelers including myself who will seek out Hawaii because of these precautions. The fact that people not adopting reasonable precautions are “staying away” makes it that much more of an appealing destination.
Hi Laura.
Thanks for that.
Aloha.
Do we have to wear masks on the beach in Maui?
Or masks on the beach on the Big Island ? Thanks!
I don’t think one person saying mask wearing for the next few years “may” be the norm means it will happen.
No one can predict what kind of treatments will evolve as we continue to learn about the virus, we have the potential to depoliticize mask wearing now that we have a President that the majority of Americans know to be honest and capable of bringing in teamwork and a steady hand to the situation and the big unknown will be the antivax movement and how many people they can scare with false “internet” facts that counter the experts who know what they are talking about.
If we had the majority of the population vaccinated, knew how to treat it better and took special care of vulnerable people I would think we could all return to normal……COVID would be largely eradicated and a COVID death would be rarer then most other diseases, we would learn to live with it…..My two cents anyway.
We need you to be voice Because you know everything about the Vaccine. Thats why we call it Medical Practice!
Well thank you! But no, not me. Sorry I didn’t make my point clear enough. My point was that the people who have dedicated their careers to getting an education that sets them up to pursuing research and years of work experience in their field and then rise to the top of their profession are the ones I want to hear from. Not some wannabe that wants attention and will say anything to get it.
Sorry that sounds sounds harsh but there are people putting out anti vax info and making money doing it. They don’t care about the consequences. Well the consequences now are how safe Hawaii will become and the anti vax folks are a real threat to that.
Think of the pain and suffering the world would have suffered if the anti vax folks had been around (and with the internet) when the polio vaccination was introduced.
Yep, Old Man Biden and his “steady hand” is going to swoop in and save us all! Like Pres. Reagan said, “When the government arrives and says, I’m here to solve your problems, that’s when you start worrying.”
You are a Sheep.
Keep your political opinions to yourself please. I am tired of the division of opinion that is stated as fact by either side.
My Southwest flight to Maui in March was recently cancelled. Love the Islands but I’m tired of jumping through hoops, not worth it to me. Time to explore the lower 48 I guess. Mahalo😊
Masks are not a huge price to pay for keeping each other safe. Just one man’s opinion. Congrats to the islands for getting back on the tourism map. The signal you are sending helps the entire tourism industry. Stay safe. Much aloha to everyone in the islands. Thanks guys, for the information filled updates!
Hi Mark.
Good to hear from you. How’s it going over there in Sacramento?
Aloha.
It’s very sad that Hawaii still thinks it will be OK to continue to treat tourists like dogs, even after a vaccine is readily available. No way will tourism get back to normal if Hawaii expects tourists to get tested within 72 hours and pray they get a negative result or face quarantine. If they continue to force worthless ineffective mask wearing on tourists even after most Hawaiians have been vaccinated and the death rate is minuscule then we are talking about nothing less than a totalitarian state. Don’t expect tourism to come back anywhere close to normal under these oppressive conditions. This is not a vacation when you are treated like you are a burden and watched like you are a criminal.
We are over in Kona enjoying relatively uncrowded conditions here and the Aloha spirit is alive and well. Our testing prior to and again on arrival all went smoothly and we are feeling blessed to again be in the beloved islands again. Businesses are opening back up (about 50% of them) so there’s plenty of restaurants/bars to choose from and boutiques and shops to go into with masks of course. In reality, no one is wearing any masks at the beach except when walking back to their cars. The tour operators are working again with limited capacity and better safety precautions post Covid.
Hi Jan.
Thanks for that report. We have the same sense.
Aloha.
Mahalo for the updates! Just wondering about your tip to get some extra room on a plane by booking three seats for two passengers – What is your strategy to do that, when each ticket requires a name and other info on the passenger? And, when you get to the airport and only two people show up for the three seats, doesn’t the airline then have the right to put another passenger in that seat?
Hi Wendy.
That is a totally accepted procedure by all airlines. You could call them in advance to see how to best book it online.
Aloha.
masks wearing for a couple of years???? hell no!! no thank you. For a virus that is 99.98% survivable and with a vaccine that is potentially 90% effective you can bet no one will want to continue to wear a mask for that long. The world has had pandemics before and will again, the fear mongering on this one is out of control and life goes on and will return to normal.
My sentiments exactly!
Exactly!
I agree 100% with Deb C. I’m over 66, had Covid and recovered fine. There are therapeutics and a vaccine on the horizon if you are that worried about it. We’ve got to get back to normal. If you are worried, don’t go. If it makes you feel better to wear a mask; wear a mask…. but there are many of us who don’t want to wear them any longer and with a 99% survival rate we’re willing to get back to traveling and enjoying life again and helping out the tourist industry. Thinking you have to wear masks for years is crazy
Please stay away from Hawaii then. Go elsewhere that can’t be bothered to take a pandemic seriously. I’d rather be more safe than less safe.
9,913,553 cases 237,037 deaths do the math NOT 99.98%
I agree 100%. Masks may stop the spread from someone that is infected, but virtually in affective for stopping you from getting COVID-19. Won’t be back until vaccinations are accepted and no masks needed. Hopefully by May 2021, when we scheduled to come to Kauai for 6 weeks.
No masks for me on vacay and sadly No travel to Hawaii because of it. Good ‘ol Honest Joe will make sure there is more fear and doom and gloom at the very beginning if he does actually get sworn into office. They must take credit for this cure but if it means getting out of a mask To travel to HI, so be it. 99%+ cure rate…wake up, people!
Did you not see the % I posted not 99%
Good morning. I am flying to Maui 12/10/20 for 4 days and then to Kauai for 4 days. I have the Pre-travel testing figured out but am still confused about arrival in Kauai and can’t seem to find the answer……do I have to take a test again in Maui so that I have a negative result when I arrive in Kauai to keep from having to quarantine for 3 of the 4 days I have in Kauai ? Can you please point me in the right direction if you don’t know the answer?
Thank you for your continuous updates on the travel situation in Hawaii😊
Hi Dawn.
This one is pretty simple. You will need to test on Maui for your trip to Kauai. That is because the test for your Kauai arrival must be taken within 72 hours of flying there.
Aloha.
My family is in a very similar situation later in December-5 days on Maui, 4 on Kauai. Where do non-residents get tested on Maui for an inter island flight? Would the voluntary 3-day post arrival test on Maui suffice for travel to Kauai? Any suggestions are appreciated, or any first hand experience from those who have done this. Thank you!! Stay well!
Hi Cherie.
Please use the state’s hawaiicovid19.com for the most recent list of approved partners. That should work out just fine.
Aloha.
And what about Maui to the Big Island-would that be “easier” to accomplish with inter island testing options?? Sorry for multiple posts.
Hi again Cherie.
It should be the same.
Aloha.
Interesting, I am currently in Kauai and having a wonderful time…I am flying to Oahu on Sat. It is my understanding I do not have to have another test? Is this just a to Kauai island secondary test issue???
Mahalo
Hi Truly.
Glad you are enjoying our home. Only Oahu does not have additional testing requirements.
Aloha.
Mask wearing will continue to be the norm at least for the next couple of years…
Not gonna submit to a mandatory vaccine or mask in public.
…and it’s people like you that will prevent us from being able to get back to normal anytime soon.
Thanks a Lot!
Respect others opinion please! You are A angry person.
More balls than brains. Stay at home.