He’s consistently ridiculed and countered Gov. He’s a doctor who insisted that Hawaii is too strict, only to change his tune weeks later. Especially not when demand for travel to Hawaii remains so high.įor all my fellow Hawaii residents reading this blog, remember what a clown Lt. And with case rates increasing rapidly around the country, now is not the time to do away with the program. I know Safe Travels is a pain in the ass – a circus even. Heck, even Los Angeles reinstated its indoor mask mandate. We’re seeing restrictions coming back into force around the globe right now. What’s more, it’s not like things are going to suddenly snap back to normal. And, as you all know, issues with crowding and misbehavior are far higher than the before times too. Despite this, visitor spending is still way down from pre-pandemic days, as Asian visitors tend to spend more than domestic visitors. That’s more visitors than BEFORE the pandemic – and, remember, most Asian visitors still aren’t returning due to restrictions back home. At the moment, Hawaii is seeing an average of 34,000 visitors arriving per day. Not everyone shares Viera’s sentiment, though. Further, he thinks that Hawaii will only suffer as other destinations reopen with less stringent requirements and restrictions. Viera states that some mainland visitors lament the program and Hawaii’s rules since they differ from those of their home state. Kieth Viera, a principal partner at KV & Associates and a former Starwood Hotels & Resorts executive here in Hawaii, still thinks Safe Travels should end. Travel Industry Experts Still Want to End the Program 66.2% of Hawaii residents began their vaccinations to date. In fact, vaccinations have slowed so much that we still haven’t reached the 60% threshold – you know, the one required to open up the vaccine passport program to the entire country? As of Sunday, we were still at 59.6% fully vaccinated. Exact numbers, however, aren’t yet available.Įven if we don’t adjust the vaccination threshold, vaccine administration in Hawaii has slowed so much that there’s little hope of us reaching 70% any time soon. Due to the nature of the Delta variant, some epidemiologists now think that herd immunity will require an immunization rate somewhere around 80% or higher. Some epidemiologists in Hawaii are going a step further and saying that Governor Ige’s 70% vaccination goal is no longer viable. Most other cases come from returning residents (20%) and community spread (78%). Josh Green, who says that “t’s highly likely that Safe Travels will be left in place throughout the rest of the year because it has effectively kept our travel-related cases down.” In case you’re wondering, visitors, account for 2% of Hawaii’s overall case count over the past couple of weeks. With case rates on the rise again thanks to the Delta variant, officials and experts are once again calling for a more conservative approach to Hawaii’s reopening. Final Thoughts Hawaii Safe Travels to Stay in Place Through 2021
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