Vacationers Are Returning To Hawaii, So Why Aren’t Tourism Jobs?

Signs that tourists are returning to Hawaii are hard to miss: crowded beaches, lines outside the tourist attractions, increased pedestrian traffic along Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki.

The return is hardly an illusion: data shows that there were significantly more tourists in Hawaii as of March this year than in the same month of 2020, when Hawaiian tourism was just beginning to feel the effects of COVID-19.

However, one thing is missing: tourism jobs. While the numbers show that March 2021 was better than March 2020 in terms of visitor numbers, March 2021 was significantly worse in terms of hotel and restaurant jobs – by nearly 40,000.

Hawaii Hotels and Restaurants employed approximately 73,000 workers in March 2021, compared to 112,000 in March 2020, despite 8% more visitors per day in March 2021, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s March visitor count.

The reason for this is simple, says Carl Bonham, executive director of the University of Hawaii economic research organization. Though tourists are returning, there just isn’t enough to fill all of the hotels.

As a sign of the return of tourism to the islands, customers lined the sidewalk outside Leonard’s Bakery, a popular tourist spot for Malasadas, on Friday. Cory Lum / Civil Beat

“We know companies will be in no hurry to restore full staff when hotels are 43% occupied,” said Bonham, citing the latest nationwide occupancy. “If you just look at March, they probably had more people than they needed.”

The problem is that Waikiki, which is still the state’s tourism, relies heavily on international travelers and no one knows when they will be back.

“If we had a higher occupancy, there would be a lot more people working now,” said Jeff Wagoner, president and chief executive officer of Outrigger Hospitality Group, who spoke at a news conference organized by the American Hotel and Lodging Association last week.

The problem with large markets like Japan is that travelers returning from the US must be quarantined for two weeks when they get home. That makes a week-long trip to Hawaii impractical, if not impossible, for Asian visitors with limited vacation time.

Understaffed workers stressed out even with fewer guests

It’s not just the decline in the number of travelers that is a problem, said Glenn Vergara, vice president and general manager of the Waikiki Resort Hotel, which is owned by Korean Air Lines. Things wouldn’t be the same even if the hotel were able to make up for lost deals with U.S. visitors who tend to be more budget conscious, Vergara said.

“Historically, the international traveler was the one willing to open his wallet,” he said.

Without them, he said, there is simply less demand for services. For example, he said, the hotel has a Korean restaurant, but there is no demand to open it without visitors from Japan and Korea. And that means fewer jobs.

Jungmin “Coco” Kim, a front desk clerk at the Waikiki Resort Hotel, said the lack of staff creates stress for guests and workers. Stewart Yerton / Civil Beat

Around noon on Thursday, the hotel lobby was mostly quiet, except for a lot of guests who checked in at reception, asked questions or left bags with the bellhop at a station in the corner. Two desk workers and a bellboy seemed to be enough for this time, but appearances can be deceptive, said Jungmin “Coco” Kim, one of the desk clerks on duty.

Kim, who works with the hotel workers union Unite HERE Local 5 to try to get more workers back to the hotel, said it can be overwhelming when more than a few tourists are checking in at the same time.

Often there is only one clerk on duty, she said, and sometimes not even a page. This means that receptionists sometimes have to deal with luggage.

Also, check-in takes longer than normal these days. Staff must review guests’ records to ensure the guest recently had a COVID-19 test, which is required to avoid the state’s 10-day quarantine, she said to discuss additional safety precautions and guidelines.

“The guests are getting frustrated,” she said. “You’re already tired from the airport.”

Vergara agreed that there is more work checking people in, but he said the hotel just can’t hire a lot more staff when the occupancy is only 40% to 50%, the restaurant is closed and no groups and Banquet business exists.

“We would like to bring our employees back,” he said. “But as much as I want to bring them back, we can’t bring them back just to stand around.”

The situation could stay that way for a while. For example, the Hotel and Accommodation Association estimates that Hawaii’s hotel jobs will remain roughly where they are now – to about 24,300 jobs a year, up from about 44,300 jobs in 2019.

Even before COVID-19, hotel managers were reducing the number of employees in certain positions by using tools such as apps that hotel guests could use to check into rooms instead of standing in line. This trend is likely to accelerate in 2021.

A recent Washington Post article about this trend quoted a conference call where Chris Nassetta, The Hilton Hotels executive shared his plan to cut labor costs at the chain’s 6,400 hotels.

“The work we are currently doing in each of our brands is to turn them into higher margin companies and work more efficiently.” He told investors in February. “When we get out of the crisis, these companies will have higher margins and require fewer workers than before.”

Numerous people lined up outside Ono Seafood Honolulu on Kapahulu Avenue in Waikiki on Friday, a sign that tourists are returning. Cory Lum / Civil Beat

Meanwhile, restaurant workers face a similar challenge due to COVID-19 and consumer trends.

COVID-19 logs have severely damaged restaurants. After complete shutdowns and takeaway-only orders, restaurants are still facing capacity constraints due to government contracts and social distancing protocols. The result is fewer seats and fewer customers – which means fewer staffing requirements, said Vergara, managing director of the Waikiki Resort Hotel.

The good news is that hotel positions are unlikely to disappear entirely anytime soon. Even jobs that require contact with several people and objects in a short period of time, such as B. Park rangers, can be safely run, said Louis Tripoli, a retired Rear Admiral in the Navy who now works as an advisor to the Hotel and Lodging Association.

“Some jobs require a little more modification than others depending on the risk involved,” he said.

Bonham, the UHERO economist, agreed that he doesn’t see COVID-19 causing some jobs to go the route of buggy whip makers and elevator operators.

“I’m not a huge fan of the idea that some industries are gone forever,” he said.

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