Mufi's Message - January 13

Mayor Blangiardi

Aloha,

Yesterday afternoon, members of the Hawai'i Tourism & Business Coalition met with Mayor Blangiardi and Managing Director Michael Formby to continue our dialogue now that Mayor Blangiardi has been officially installed as our City's mayor. It was an especially productive conversation that gave us great insight into the direction his administration will take in the coming months as it pertains to our economic recovery. He was also eager to hear our views on how we felt about aspects of the economy as well as public health and safety priorities that we want to collaborate on with the City. 

This afternoon, HLTA will join HTA and HVCB in co-sponsoring our first meeting with Mayor Blangiardi that is open to HLTA board members. This is another opportunity to build a positive working relationship with the mayor and his administration as the meeting will provide a forum not only to share our mana'o and our concerns, but also to just talk story with Honolulu's leader for the next four years.

These early weeks of Mayor Blangiardi's first term have been extremely encouraging in terms of the openness and availability he has shown the leaders and stakeholders of the tourism industry. We are off to a good start. ​

Mayor Victorino

Yesterday morning, the HTA, HLTA, HVCB ongoing forum with our county mayors had its January session with Mayor Victorino. We appreciate the mayor’s willingness to meet on a regular basis with our industry. Another frank exchange occurred with the mayor and his staff fielding questions from our stakeholders. 

Later in the day, Mayor Victorino submitted a proposal to Governor Ige requesting further rule changes for his county. These include:

• All travelers download the AlohaSafe Alert app to aid in contact tracing
• Essential workers staying on Maui for more than one day be required to take a COVID-19 test
• Restrict large retailers like Costco to 30% capacity
• Restrict smaller retailers to 50% capacity

There has been no indication as of yet whether Governor Ige will allow these rule changes or not, but we will continue to monitor the situation and share with you any updates that we receive.

Mahalo,
Mufi