Labor shortages, influx of tourists into the state burden businesses

Hawaii’s high unemployment rate may not have prepared it for the influx of tourists to come as the pandemic subsides, tourism industry officials said Friday.

“I don’t think any of us, no one in the industry, expected tourism to recover as quickly as it does, especially in the US,” said Kelly Sanders, senior vice president of operations at Hawaii Highgate Hotels, during a livestream Interviews on Friday.

With tourism returning much stronger than expected, Sanders said some destinations in the state could be overwhelmed without enough staff to accommodate them.

“We are not prepared in many ways,” said Sanders. “We don’t have enough rental cars… it’s hard to get some people back to work. Many restaurants that would have liked to open today couldn’t because we don’t have the employees. “

Mufi Hannemann, president and CEO of the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association, said the demand for accommodation is very high, but getting hotel workers back to work has been a challenge.

“People should overlook the fact that Uncle Sam is giving them a paycheck until September of this year, and although they might make more money staying home than going to work, we have to bring them back,” said Hannemann. “We still have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, still around 50,000 unemployed. So the more we go back to a situation where there is some kind of normalcy, the better we will be. ”

Hannemann added that many car rental companies sold much of their inventory in the lean months of 2020 and are facing delays in sourcing new vehicles due to a lack of computer chips.

Meanwhile, Sanders said the state is seeing “a new breed of customer” visiting the state thanks to airlines opening new flights to Hawaii that can be challenging to educate about the state’s environmental initiatives.

Because of that, Hannemann said a bill before the governor that would cut the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s resources significantly couldn’t come at a worse time.

“We recognized long before the pandemic that it was important to manage tourism better and not just put all your eggs in the basket of tourism marketing,” said Hannemann. “… One lesson we have learned from this pandemic is everyone’s total dependence on tourism. I like it, hate it, what’s the matter with you, but that’s the engine that drives our economy. We can continue to pursue economic diversification initiatives and the like, but at the end of the day it will come back to tourism right now. “

Email Michael Brestovansky at [email protected].