Hawaii businesses have been surprised by the influx of tourists lately and were not fully prepared for the surge.
Jerry Agrusa, a tourism expert at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, recently projected that the state would see a record year for tourism and that he didn’t expect the immediate and massive return of Hawaii visitors.
“Today we’re fully booked, tomorrow booked up already,” Ivan Williams, board boy at Faith Surf School in Waikiki, told Hawaii News Now. “The next day I think we’ve got like one more spot open.”
While mayors, including Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, are waiting for Gov. David Ige’s response on their tier change request, businesses are saying increasing capacity would help them better accommodate visitors and reduce wait times. Dante Kea, manager of Duke’s Waikiki, says wait times at his restaurant are between one and one and a half hours. If capacities could be increased, businesses would be able to serve more visitors and provide them with a better tourism experience.
Despite wanting to have their operations return to normal, the large crowd was not really expected, causing businesses to rush to hire and train more people, Hawaii News Now reported.
According to State of Hawaii Portal for COVID-19, the state has recorded 212,046 visitor arrivals from last week, more than 103,000 of which have been accommodated by hotels, while the majority of the rest lodged in condominiums and rental houses.