LIHUE, Hawaii (AP) – Kauai companies are offering significant discounts to attract consumers after an almost absolute end of sightseeing on the Hawaiian island due to the coronavirus outbreak in the spring.
Businesses are offering refunds as a gesture to citizens who have also felt the economic influence of lost visitors, The Garden Island reported Thursday.
No out-of-state travelers flew to Lihue Airport on July 13, while only 2,533 Americans arrived in the state at a time when the Hawaii Tourism Authority said there were 35,000 arrivals last year.
Kauai companies presented discounts and services, adding horseback riding, ice scraping and wedding ceremonies.
Some of the reduction offers are posted on the Kauai Visitors Office website. The site was recently re-announced after Democratic Gov. David Ige approved the recovery of inter-island travel, visitors’ executive director Sue Kanoho said in an email.
Donna Hunt, director of advertising at Silver Falls Ranch in Kilauea, said 750 bookings for horseback riding station at a discount of 60% to 70%.
“Three-quarters of our visitors were Kauai,” Hunt said.
Daniel Soule, owner of Fresh Shave in Kalaheo, said providing a shaving-flavored ice cream is a reminder for citizens to “go out even in times of uncertainty.”
Joyful-Ceremonies and Weddings now offers a 25% discount on wedding ceremonies on the b until the end of the year.
The owner, Dale Rosenfeld, said that 99% of her business commonly comes from tourists and that the shed is a gesture of goodwill towards the community, where she said that physical fitness predates profits.
“I’m in no hurry to see the island open, the economy is devastating,” Rosenfeld said.
For the maximum of others, coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that go away in two to 3 weeks. But for some, the most important friend, the elderly and others with existing physical disorders, this can lead to more serious illnesses, adding pneumonia and death.