Good/Bad News: Hawaii’s Borders To Stay Closed, But Resort Bubble Planning Is Approved

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Hawaii has struggled with balancing its wish to open its gates to tourism with its need to keep its citizens safe. With Governor David Ige’s announcement that it’s unlikely the state will open transpacific travel on its goal date of October 1st, it looks like safety will continue to win out.

“Just talking with many in the industry, it will probably not be October 1st, but in the next few days we will be providing a better plan for the scheduling of what those dates would look like,” he said during his press conference earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Kauai has gotten permission to begin planning resort bubbles. The concept of resort bubbles had been floated in July, and Gov. Ige signed an order in August to allow counties to formulate plans for them. Kauai is the first to get permission to do so.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that Kauai is going to open, with resort bubbles in place, imminently. This just means they have the OK from the Governor to make plans for them.

With resort bubbles in place, quarantining visitors could stay at a participating resort and leave their hotel rooms to use the resort’s property, including pools and on-site restaurants. However, they would also have to agree to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet so they could be tracked by the resort to ensure they didn’t go beyond whatever boundaries would be set.

On the resorts’ side, they would need to establish security and enforcement policies that would protect the safety of both guests and employees, and also coincide with the state’s emergency rules such as mask-wearing and social distancing.

Should a guest tamper with their monitoring unit or leave the resort bubble, hotel security would notify the Kauai Police Department. Punishment for these violators, if convicted, would be a fine of up to $5,000 or serving a year in jail, or both.

Response to the idea of resort bubbles has varied. Not surprisingly, those in the travel and hospitality industry are excited about the possibility. Others are, understandably, concerned about the safety of resort workers if those who are potentially COVID positive stay at the resort for 2 weeks and can travel within its bounds.

Obviously, a lot of planning will need to be put into place before resort bubbles can be a reality. But when it comes to tourism in Hawaii, it’s a step in the right direction.

Feature photo: pxhere

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary