11/20/2023 0 Comments State hawaii safe travels![]() Hawaiian Airlines spokesman Alex Da Silva said Ige’s decision to end the Safe Travels program is encouraging for the state’s economic recovery, and Hawaiian expects demand for travel to Hawaii to continue to recover.ĭa Silva said the carrier is seeing “encouraging domestic bookings through spring break and into the summer as omicron concerns subside and overall conditions for travel improve.” It has been a long two years, and we certainly hope that we see positive outcomes for the industry in the coming year.” It speaks to the resilience of travel.”ĭuke Ah Moo, vice president and commercial director for Hilton in Hawaii and French Polynesia, said the company is “so pleased that Hawaii’s restrictions are being lifted so that our community, our employees and our guests can start returning to a bit of normalcy. “It’s just amazing that the air seat projections are showing that we’ll be within 99% of 2019. “The overall seat count to Hawaii is only down 0.7%,” Kam said. Kam said the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism has forecast domestic air seats this year will be 25% higher than in 2019 and will nearly offset the drop in international air seats. The end of Hawaii’s entry requirements for domestic travelers, along with the addition of more air seats, is expected to give the state’s visitor industry the tools needed for a more solid rebound. ![]() travelers surveyed said they are considering a Hawaii vacation in the next six months, “which means demand for Hawaii is holding steady, even though travel affordability considerations are up.” Kam said it was a positive sign that 5% of the U.S. Americans want to travel they just have a lot of concern about what it’s going to cost them.” “But at the same time, we see a decrease in the perceptions about the affordability of travel. “Since February 2021 that number has zoomed from about a third of travelers to half of the travelers,” he said. travelers who participated in the firm’s latest TravelTrakAmerica survey in February said they had no specific travel plans but were considering traveling in the next six months. ![]() It’s not in our DNA to stay in one place for very long,” said Chris Kam, president and COO of OmniTrak. Beginning March 26, travelers arriving from the mainland will not be required to create a Safe Travels account, show their COVID-19 vaccination status or take a pre-travel test when traveling to the Hawaiian Islands. ![]() David Ige’s recent announcement that the Safe Travels program will end March 25. The good news is that so far, travel demand is up from domestic travelers, who have reacted positively to Gov. Hawaii tourism officials are monitoring these potential headwinds, especially as they pertain to international visitors, who have been mostly absent from Hawaii’s tourism market during the pandemic and been a key drag on the industry’s recovery. UHERO has forecast that visitor numbers will reach 9.5 million in 2023 - still well below the peak 10.4 million visitors who arrived in Hawaii in 2019.īut two years to the day after Hawaii’s first COVID-19 case, UHERO said “considerable risks remain, including COVID-19 surprises, Federal Reserve tightening and economic fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.” The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization is projecting that arrivals, after a weak start to the year, will surpass last summer’s peak by the second quarter and reach 90% of their pre- COVID-19 level by year’s end. The ending of Hawaii’s Safe Travels program for domestic travelers later this month is expected to create more opportunities for Hawaii to recover visitor arrivals, which at year’s end were still down nearly 35% from pre-pandemic 2019.
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