Hawaii Air
January 27th, 2012 . by adminAccording to a report on Hawaii’s KHON-TV, President Obama issued an executive order launching a major new travel initiative offers major benefits for Hawaii, including the easing of visa processing requirements for visitors from China and a possible visa waiver for visitors from Taiwan. Besides having readily available and cheap Hawaii flights, the issuance of visas, have been the number one barrier to increasing travel from China to the Aloha State. Needless to say, the easing of visa processing requirements by President Obama was music to the ears of the Hawaii tourism industry.
About 70,000 people from China visited Hawaii last year and tourists from that country spend the most of any market segment. Their number of tourists from China was projected to grow to about 125,000 this year, even without the easing of visa requirements. China Eastern Airlines had recently offered direct airfare to Hawaii; but they had suspended at least some of their flights citing the difficulty of tourists getting visas to Hawaii. So this action should definitely have an impact increasing the number of Chinese tourist looking for Hawaii air options on China Eastern as well as on any other carrier that flies to Hawaii from Asia.
About 16,000 people came to Hawaii from Taiwan last year, a number that could grow exponentially as it did when Japan, Philippines and South Korea were granted visa waivers. So it is hoped that the Obama administration will also ease visa requirements for Taiwanese tourists who are looking for Hawaii air options on carriers such as Taiwan’s China Air and other carriers serving the Taiwan market.
