Interesting read albeit long and rambling, as Hawaii’s reopening made big news this week in the New York Times (NYT). Their article offered various points of view from travel stakeholders and Hawaii residents. Here were some key takeaways for us. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts.
Hawaii has removed the mandatory 14-day quarantine with pre-travel testing. That happened on October 15. As a result, “more than 100,000 people have rushed to the islands from mainland states, exciting state officials, some hoteliers, airlines and local business owners, who for seven months have watched the state’s economy grind to a halt.” According to NYT.
The newspaper interviewed Hawaiian’s Avi Mannis, who said about our reopening, “Hawaii is at the vanguard of what travel will look like for the next year or so as we reopen.” And what Avi said may be true not just here in the islands but internationally as well. Various forms of pre-travel testing will be a huge part of travel for the foreseeable future. The next hurdle may be for all passengers to be tested before flying, which requires federal approval. Until then as Avi goes on to say, “Your test results are between you, your health care provider and the state of Hawaii.”
Do residents concur with the Hawaii travel industry that it was time to reopen?
Some residents clearly don’t feel that reopening as it is going now is in their best interest. Others are happy to be on an apparent path to the return of Hawaii travel and many of its jobs. Concerns, however, include the reliability of testing, incomplete testing, and, in spite of testing, the possibility of visitors arriving in the islands with COVID. To date, however, the majority of cases in the islands in the past three weeks have been the result of returning residents and not visitors.
Lt. Gov. Green on case counts and need for reopening.Â
“We are all at risk whether we live here in Hawaii or on the mainland and we can’t stay isolated forever, we won’t survive. There are people who want to ride this out until a vaccine comes, but it’s hard to make that policy when we know that homelessness will surge, kids won’t get vaccines and so on. Saying ‘don’t come under any circumstances’ is not realistic.” — Josh Green.
Lieutenant Governor Green indicated that while there have been some problems during the reopening process, which included people taking tests or using vendors not approved by the state or refusing to be tested at all, the great majority of visitors have been getting tests and the good news is they are testing negative. The state is also conducting voluntary follow-up testing four days after people arrive as part of its surveillance testing program. So far. data shows that very few travelers have tested positive for COVID after arriving in Hawaii.
How much is pre-testing boosting travel?
Not enough yet. That is clear. We continue to see flights canceled or not restarted, especially to the neighboring islands. United Airlines is betting big on pre-testing opening travel to Hawaii and other destinations. “In some markets… until a vaccine is more widely available, testing will become part of the norm.”
Is Hawaii “Pandering to tourists.”
The NYT article quotes those complaining that Honolulu’s mayor spent October handing out masks to tourists at Waikiki Beach and doing that was “Being hypocritical and unfair. Nearly 50,000 locals had been cited for being on the beach, but tourists were being encouraged to visit it.” Mayor Caldwell did not respond to the NYT’s request for comment. One person was quoted as saying “They are criminalizing locals and then pandering to tourists.”
Kauai’s prosecutor Justin Kollar said that “Kauai (is) keeping the pandemic at bay and the state is running over that with a reopening process that is not well thought out and not well organized and it’ll open the floodgates to this virus… There’s a sense that locals haven’t celebrated, haven’t seen family, and have been asked to keep doing that so tourists can come to play on our beaches.”
The story continues to unfold. And the numbers will determine the success of Hawaii reopening. Your thoughts?
I don’t have enough hand or eyeball sanitizer to click on a NYT link, but we have yet to receive any noticeable stink eye since returning to Kauai a few days ago. Of course, who can really tell where anyone is from when you are at Costco or Foodland? The employees at the couple of restaurant/bars we’ve visited were very happy to see us, or at least did a good job faking it (I don’t think they were).
Traffic is light. The beach on far north shore from Wainiha to Ha`ena state park is nearly empty, and the few people that are out are not wearing masks, including the life guard at the park. There is no actual reason to wear a mask with so much empty space and a decent trade wind, and it would be a sweaty miserable experience.
We are going to stay away from the Bistro, maybe for good, but at least through the end of the year. It’s a bummer to not see and catch up with some long-time friends and acquaintances that are regulars, but we will run into them elsewhere (it’s a small island), and we will respect the owner’s wishes/rules, even if we think he is misguided.