The airlines are taking lots of precautions. Masks will be required, middle seats will be empty, no beverage service, extensive cleaning, handing out wipes. I plan to fly in a couple of weeks and will still have very few people on the flight with me. I will be careful about hand washing, wear my mask and hope for the best.
As more folks can work remotely, I think there’s definitely a market for folks who are interested in a destination with virtually no new cases (single digits every day past past 2 weeks).
People who don’t like whatever the rules evolve to can go elsewhere. One of the ways to keep folks safe is uniformly enforcing the rules.
Many of the posters here are older and presumably considered much higher risk of having a bad result of COVID-19 than traditional-age college students. Travel restrictions like quarantines can also limit access to desired travel destinations (who wants to spend the first 14 days in Hawaii confined to the hotel room except for medical care?). Some people may be into cruises, but obviously do not want to go on one now. So they may be more hesitant to do “optional” travel before a vaccine.
I am pretty sure our foreign travelers won’t be returning soon to any part of the US, including Hawaii.
I assume Hawaii would have to also prevent its own residents from leaving for the mainland or any other island and returning, at least requiring the same 14 day quarantine.
Yes, the quarantine is uniformly applied. Residents may quarantine in their residence for 14 days. Everyone goes straight from airport to where they are being quarantined and stays there 14 days. Anyone can leave—when they return, everyone goes into quarantine. Limited exception for flight crews.
I am guessing that places like Hawaii will need to figure this out very quickly. If tourism goes away because of the restrictions, which include no restaurants, bars, tours, paid activities while in quarantine, wouldn’t unemployment hit close to 50% in the islands? This includes services that support everything. How would the government support all those unemployed people? I think it would lead to civil unrest eventually.
Thousands would have to leave (if they could even afford it) to find jobs elsewhere. I have friends who have no money coming in period. I have a nephew who is just graduating nursing school at Chaminade and has a new job in a hospital. He has been called down to only 1 day a week because there are no patients.
Maybe Hawaii will finally get their wish - independence from the US… no more hordes of tourists… It will be a sad ending, unfortunately.
HI would be devastated. All the big retail/food chains etc will leave. The young people will leave, the universities will be nonviable, the rich would be really delighted. It would be like PR after a bad hurricane.
HI will be one of the first places IMO to open up to tourism. What else will they do?
Waikiki would become a boarded up ghost town. Which, by the way, it is right now. Most of the fancy high end stores are covered in plywood. Probably with even a 25% decline in tourism there will be a lot of stores and restaurants out of business.
There would be a world of hurt in my town also. But I don’t think we will have restrictions in place much longer. Come on out to San Diego!
Hi depends on tourism, but also has some things going for it - like the ability to grow food including some for export. I also doubt we’re the only ones looking at it for more long term safety if things were to go badly with the virus over the next few months. I’ve heard of folks looking at New Zealand as well, which to me, seems more difficult.
The places that could really get hurt horribly are some of the islands (Bahamas comes to mind) that are totally dependent upon tourism. Try to grow food on sand. HI is volcanic - nice soil, established farms, coffee, beef, etc.
A friend’s son is getting married in Hawaii in November. That was the plan at least. I doubt if that will come off now. No one can fly to Hawaii for a wedding two weeks ahead of time to quarantine, unless the hotels will comp that two weeks.
I can see the ads now. Come to Hawaii. Three weeks at our resort for the price of one.
You are in the minority here. 99.9% of visitors to HI cannot afford this. You are basically thinking about moving to the islands and living on a farm. Yes, there is farming in HI, but that farming is not going to sustain the current population (plus escapees like you). A 50% drop in tourism will be disastrous for many locals.
On average, a visitor to HI spends less than 10 days in the state.
http://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/visitor/tourism/2020/Mar20.pdf
I agree HI and other places are going to lose their basic tourists. I said so some posts back. I disagree that it’s going to ruin HI. A quick google search tells me 20% of HI’s economy is based upon tourism. Compare that to the Bahamas where it’s 50%.
HI has other things to fall back on, including food options - their own beef farms, their own shrimp producers, their own fruits and veggies, etc. Other places aren’t as fortunate.
Then that 20% could be offset by others who come in. Many already retire to HI bringing in their steady finances. That could go up, esp if they are viewed as a safe alternative while typical retirement states are not. Others who choose to winter elsewhere - snowbirds, those like us who “migrate” while working, etc, could also offset some of the tourist economy.
You’re looking solely at tourism and we don’t disagree about that. I’m looking at the bigger picture for the state. They may not be in a horrible position comparatively as they have other things going for them. Other places don’t. The big picture looks dismal for many places reliant on tourism (along with cruise ships).
Hawaii has a big timeshare business. How does one go to Hawaii to use their one week timeshare and quarantine for 14 days?
Even if people could fly in, rent a hotel/condo, go only to the beach in front of their unit, it will still hurt the economy. No helicopter rides, no restaurant eating, no hula shows, no surfing lessons. No revenue.
Hawaii is planning a new tourism marketing campaign with the slogan that it’s the “safest place on earth”.
A quick google search tells me 20% of HI’s economy is based upon tourism.<<<<<<<<<<<
I call BS. I suspect that you can do better.
Ok, if it’s tough for you to do, here’s what I put in:
What percent of Hawaii’s economy is tourism
And here’s the page it shows me:
21% is the first big number you’ll see. I guess I was off by one. Sorry…
I gather the rest of you want to see HI fail as a state? Heck, I’m supposed to be in Krakow today - heading to Gdansk tomorrow. Poland shut down early not allowing travelers in, so our trip is gone. This was an actual vacation - not a work destination or a working remotely thing for H. I’m not sure it will ever happen. I’m also not sure our flight is really going to be refunded because it’s not supposed to happen for 12 weeks.
It hardly means I want to see Poland fail as a country because I’m upset at what they did or what happened to us.
My family is here pondering how we can stay safe while still helping places that need help. We know we can’t do everything, but we can do something. We love HI. If they lose their tourism, it’s bad, but it could be helpful if others were to help make up for it. I’m not sure why that means such hatred, but whatever. The Bahamas are another place we’ve thought about because we’ve been there before and know how hard hit that country has been with hurricanes and now this. Other Caribbean islands are also in the running for us.
We’ll do us. We’re currently waiting to see what the next couple of months bring.
I read that airlines are doing something sneaky about the “no middle seats” change. United is not allowing people to book a middle seat, but if they are oversold then those seats become available. This is actually making it an inconvenience for people who prefer to sit next to family and not a stranger. With the massive cut in flights unless there are laws against booking middle seats airlines will not deny a paying customer.
If the standard of care becomes “no middle seats”, you better believe they will not be filling those seats.