Tourism trickles again to Hawaii, however a significant rebound could possibly be years away

Anya Pratskevich had Hawaii’s colorful underwater world of tropical fish, coral reefs and crystal clear water to herself.

“You are so lucky!” said her snorkeling instructor in Oahu’s Hanauma Bay. “There used to be a 100-person line here, today there are only six or seven people.”

With fewer visitors, the first time the San Francisco product marketing manager snorkeled in Oahu last December turned into a semi-private tour of the famous crescent-shaped conservation area.

Pratskevich and her husband rented an apartment on the island for a month in December to take advantage of the opportunity to work remotely and explore the capital of the Hawaiian Islands.

Anya Pratskevich took this photo of a turtle snorkeling in Oahu’s Hanauma Bay in December 2020.

Anya Pratskevich / Courtesy

On their hikes, they encountered far fewer tourists than on other islands during the period before the pandemic.

“I wouldn’t call it a typical Hawaiian experience,” she said. “It was a different mood.”

Despite the reopening of tourism in mid-October, with negative COVID-19 tests allowing visitors to bypass lengthy quarantines, the recovery for Hawaii’s tourism industry is sluggish. Home orders, post-travel quarantines, and rising COVID-19 infections in island core markets like the Bay Area and Los Angeles keep many visitors away.

“It had some serious implications,” said Anneke Marchese, a travel planner who specializes in island vacations. “It really destroyed my Hawaiian business. I didn’t have anything in the books. “

Airlines are also taking note of this as some airlines are withdrawing their flights in the coming months.

Southwest Airlines removed two nonstop flights from Lihue to Oakland and San Jose, California through June due to “visiting [on Kauai] remains effectively suspended by restrictions, “said an airline spokesman. “However, we continue to provide the ability to make critical shipments and movements of critical supplies through inter-island flights between Lihue and Honolulu that connect non-stop to the Bay Area several times a day.”

United Airlines has suspended its non-stop service between Newark, New Jersey and Honolulu until February. A United spokesman said the suspension was in place to “adjust capacity to customer demand,” but expects the flight to be back in service soon.

On United’s flights between San Francisco International Airport and Hawaii, “demand is currently meeting our expectations,” the airline said.

United remains bullish on the Bay Area to Hawaii market. It is planned to resume a third daily flight between SFO and Honolulu in February, and to fly a larger Boeing 777-200 on one of its multiple daily flights to Maui. Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines also fly between all three airports in the Bay Area and Hawaii.

Marchese said her bookings to Hawaii would improve after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a negative COVID-19 test requirement for international travelers arriving in the U.S. who would be stranded overseas if they test positive.

“Overall, we feel that the Hawaiian market is still in good demand,” said OFS spokesman Doug Yakel. He said demand fell slightly in December because health orders and travel warnings recommended staying home.

In its annual economic forecast, released in December, the University of Hawaii economic research organization said the state would face a bleak winter.

“Visitor arrivals in November, the first full month of the Safe Travels program, rose to less than a quarter of their level a year earlier,” he said Authors noted. They add, “In our baseline forecast scenario, visitor arrivals will stagnate in the near future due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in the mainland and tightening of quarantine rules for Hawaii.”

According to the report, tourism is expected to pick up again in the second half of 2021 once people are re-vaccinated and confidence in leisure travel increases. A full recovery is unlikely to happen for years, even under the most optimistic of scenarios.

The drive to recover Hawaii’s tourism sector competes with an opposite sentiment: the people of Hawaii really do I’m not looking forward to seeing visitors come back.

Almost two thirds of the state Residents surveyed by the Hawaii Tourism Authority replied that people from outside the state should not visit Hawaii now. Meanwhile, 62% of respondents disagreed that the state and local governments could safely reopen the islands.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” said Marchese. “You don’t want the wrong kind of tourists bringing their drama and problems with them, but at the same time you have family fodder. It’s a big mystery. “

Tim Jue writes about travel and the airlines. Follow him on Twitter @timjue.