To satisfy excessive customer demand, tourism business works to beef up enterprise

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Memorial Day weekend traditionally marks the start of the summer season, and the tourism industry is doing its best to keep up with the high demand.

Tourism in Hawaii is roaring back and Jerry Agrusa, tourism expert at UH Manoa, didn’t expect him to come back anytime soon.

“I predicted it would come back, but I didn’t think it would bring back the wave as big as this time,” said Agrusa.

While companies are fully booked and busy, they also try to recruit their staff to keep up with the influx of demand.

“We’re fully booked today, fully booked tomorrow,” said Ivan Williams, board member of Faith Surf School in Waikiki. “The next day, I think we have one more seat free.”

Williams said classes at Faith Surf School fill up quickly.

They try to accommodate as many people as possible.

“We’re going to try to go like about a week later to get them in there because we just put them in and they just keep coming,” Williams said.

For most of the pandemic, the school operated with a skeleton crew.

Now they are trying to find more licensed instructors, but Williams said even that was a challenge.

“You need that blue card, you need to be certified,” Williams explained. “So you can be like the best surfer, but if you don’t have that blue card, you shouldn’t be in water class.”

For Duke’s Waikiki, business is no different.

Dante Kea, manager of Duke’s Waikiki, said they are 50% busy.

The waiting times are usually between one and one and a half hours.

While Mayor Rick Blangiardi awaits the governor’s response regarding Tier 4 changesRestaurants like Duke’s said increasing capacity would help.

“We would at least alleviate our weakness a little and perhaps allow ourselves to reach our guests a little faster,” said Kea.

The manager said they hired weekly and trained people in anticipation of the wave of visitors.

Agrusa said Hawaii will have a record year.

“And you can see the aviation industry is adding more and more flights to direct flights to Hawaii,” said Agrusa. “That way people can come here and the capacity on the planes is full.”

According to secure travel datesOver 72,000 people came to Hawaii on Thursday and Friday, and another 40,000 are expected on Saturday.

Copyright 2021 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.