Hawaii tourism leaders worry about summer travel slowdown
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Hawaii tourism leaders worry about summer travel slowdown
State numbers show a drop in visitors compared to a year ago for most days in June. Tourism experts said the state’s not doing enough to turn things around. The state had a record 10 million visitors in 2019 before the pandemic crushed the industry. In 2023, the Maui wildfires stifled a rebound in tourism, experts said. The industry should strike while the iron’s hot, they said.
“It’s supposed to be booming,” said Bruce Fisher of Hawaii Aloha Travel. “And we just got through June, and it is really the slowest I’ve seen it in a long time.”
State numbers show a drop in visitors compared to a year ago for most days in June.
And tourism experts said the state’s not doing enough to turn things around.
“We’re not marketing out there,” said Keith Vieira, who runs KV & Associates. “Hawaii has one of the best brands in the world. We need to put that in front of people. We need to get that into the marketplace.”
The state had a record 10 million visitors in 2019 before the pandemic crushed the industry. Then in 2023, the Maui wildfires stifled a rebound in tourism.
“This was the first time coming into 25 that people thought ‘Ok, it’s going to get better, the summer will be good, Japan will rebound and businesses will be back,’ but that’s not the case,” he said.
Industry experts said it’s time to strike while the iron’s hot.
“With what’s going on in the Middle East, Americans are going to be afraid to travel to European big cities,” Vieira added. “So people are going to look for safe destinations, and they’re going to go west. What better time to ask them to come to Hawaii?”
Before it’s too late.
“Over time it will get better, but in the meantime, who suffers? The small mom-and-pop operations,” he said. “The small person that has, you know, maybe a dive shop or something like that. They can’t survive.”