A combination of scant international travel to Hawaii, a COVID-19 surge and Gov. David Ige’s subsequent plea in August for travelers to avoid nonessential trips to the state through October contributed to a substantial drop in visitor arrivals last month compared with pre-pandemic September 2019.
“The late-summer surge of the delta variant continued to depress visitor spending and visitor arrivals in September, which had a negative impact on our state’s economy and more importantly, the health of our residents, ” Hawaii Tourism Authority President and CEO John De Fries said in a statement.
He added, “Despite the anticipated slowdown in fall travel we were encouraged to see the positive results from the U.S. West and U.S. East markets knowing how visitor spending translates into continued support for jobs in our community.”
The domestic market outperformed 2019. It was up by 10.7% for the U.S. West, Hawaii’s core visitors market, and up by 9.3% in the U.S. East. Still, the gains were not high enough to offset continued flatlining in Hawaii’s international markets, which created mixed results across the islands.
In September, 505,861 visitors arrived by air to the islands — up significantly from the 18,409 visitors who touched down here in September 2020. However, compared with September 2019, when the arrivals tally was 736,155, last month’s count dropped by 31%.
On any given day in September, there were 154,355 visitors in the Hawaii — a dramatic climb from 20,472 visitors a day in 2020 but below the mark of 206,169 in September 2019.
Last month’s visitor spending, $1.05 billion, was 15% below $1.25 billion generated in September 2019, according to preliminary statistics released Thursday by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Spending comparisons are not available from September 2020 because the departure survey was not conducted due to COVID-19 restrictions.
DBEDT Director Mike McCartney said in a statement that year-to-date through September, numbers show that 2021 Hawaii’s visitor arrivals are down by 38% to 3.2 million, and visitor spending is down by 32% to $4.2 billion, compared with 2019 levels.
“Over the past 18 months we have learned and done many things that collectively changed the trajectory of Hawaii. We have shifted from fearing COVID-19 to respecting it, managing it and ultimately, living with it,” McCartney said. “Our actions to put public health before economic prosperity will start to pay dividends in the months to come.”
On Oct. 19 Ige invited fully vaccinated domestic travelers to resume nonessential travel to Hawaii starting Monday. Ige’s move came as Hawaii’s COVID-19 case counts declined. But the near-term setbacks have hurt Hawaii’s visitor industry, including hospitality workers, who haven’t been able to get as many hours as they need to make financial ends meet.
Hundreds of hospitality workers in Hawaii on Thursday joined thousands around the U.S. and Canada in a day of action to “Come Back Stronger” and fight for good jobs. Unite Here Local 5 staged a march with sign- waving, along with chanting and dancing, in the heart of Waikiki, using tactics reminiscent of the union’s 51-day strike in 2018. There were union actions in Maui and on Hawaii island, too.
During the action, workers passed out flyers urging hotel guests to ask hotel management for daily housekeeping, food and beverage services, and valet services.
Local 5 spokesman Bryant de Venecia said about 60% of the union’s hospitality workers have returned to their jobs in Hawaii. He said troubles vary, with some of the workers who have returned to their workplaces denied full-time hours, while others are overworked.
Julie Gabot, who has worked as a housekeeper at the Sheraton Waikiki for 33 years, said she returned to full-time work in November, but she’s sad that many of her co-workers, friends and family have not been called back.
“Some of the lower- seniority housekeepers aren’t back at my hotel because we don’t have daily housekeeping service,” Gabot said. “They weren’t called back to work even when it was busy two months ago and hotel occupancy was at 75% to 80%. The hotels are using the pandemic as an excuse. We should give the guests daily housekeeping service. They deserve it and they’ve paid for it.”
Gabot said the employment situation is even worse for hotel workers in departments like valet and food and beverage.
“I’m very worried,” she said. “Most workers that haven’t returned to work are out of unemployment, and if they don’t return to work by February 2022, they will lose their (union) recall rights and have to reapply for their jobs.”
Tennessee-based STR reported that statewide hotel occupancy in September dropped to 55.2% — the lowest occupancy rate since April. September’s hotel occupancy was strikingly higher than September 2020, when statewide occupancy was at 19.6% and the state still required a lengthy travel quarantine for all nonexempt travelers. However, it was down 23.1 percentage points from the 78.8% statewide occupancy STR reported in September 2019.
According to STR, none of its top 25 markets saw an occupancy increase over 2019. However, Oahu — the state’s island most dependent on international travel — reported the steepest decline in occupancy when compared with 2019, falling to 51.8%.
Jerry Gibson, president of the Hawaii Hotel Alliance, said easing restrictions on international and group travel will be key to a more solid recovery.
The Biden administration’s international air travel policy starts Nov. 8. The new policy allows entry for foreign nationals and U.S. citizens who provide proof that they are fully vaccinated and submit a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days of traveling to the United States.
Hawaii’s visitor industry has been lobbying for Hawaii to align its entry policy for international travelers with the federal policy. However, official guidance from state officials is still pending.
Gibson said COVID-19 booster shots and vaccines for children also could improve Hawaii’s travel outlook. “The easier we can make it, the more people will travel,” he said.
McCartney said Hawaii is now seeing signs that the visitor economy will begin to recover at an accelerated rate. “I am optimistic that we will end 2021 stronger and enter 2022 with solid momentum for growth,” he said, adding, “I am confident Hawaii is ready, now more than ever, to be open for business.”
Gibson said that the hotel industry is starting to see “a little better” pace toward the end of October, November and December. “It’s still below 2019, but we are happy to see short-term pace pick up for the end of the year,” Gibson said.
To meet anticipated holiday demand, Hawaiian Airlines is expanding service between Honolulu and Seattle and San Francisco as well as between Kahului and Los Angeles.
