Hawaii travel experts unpack the state's confusing rules on Covid-era travel, plus ways to manage tourism on the islands; demand and rates; and favorite new travel programs.
United s Safe Travels screening at San Francisco Airport.
Hawaii s Safe Travels Covid-19 screening program has had its hiccups. Rules were in flux right up to the Oct. 15 launch and continued to change in the weeks that followed. The first few days included long lines at airports and bouts of confusion. Kauai was in, then out, then back in again as of April 5.
Now, more than five months into Safe Travels, the early tumult has dissipated, and infection levels which never skyrocketed in the state continue to fall.
Hawaii specialists like Gail Stringer of HGS Travel in Seattle say travel advisors have been kept busy the past few months by travelers wanting to tap into their knowledge of the Islands.
Industry experts predict what travel will look like in 2021 and beyond
Brendan Kiley
Seattle Ask a few people in the travel business how their industry is doing, and you’ll start to hear some common refrains: Travel took a beating in 2020. The market is bursting with pent-up demand. Great deals are everywhere, but the terrain keeps shifting, so consider the help of travel agents. Beaches and parks are in so, apparently, is littering. Between vaccine distribution hiccups and the new coronavirus variants, nobody knows when the floodgates will truly open.
That last point draws a little more debate. Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association (a nonprofit trade group) says his go-to analysts at Tourism Economics predict gradual leisure-travel growth until June, then a spike in July, with corporate travel coming back in the fall.