Have timeshare, will travel

Other accomodations straining for business

As a possible indicator of tourist confidence following terrorist hijackings and attacks and the threats of more, most of the timeshares on Kaua’i are doing “very well, “just as they did after Hurricane ‘Iniki,” said Gary Baldwin, the island’s member of the Hawai’i Tourism Authority.

Timeshare occupancies, normally in the low 90s, are in the high 80s, he said.

“We know that selected properties are only down about 10 points from last year,” said Baldwin.

Group businesses aren’t cancelling, but merely postponing.

“Air (travel) is going to be a problem that is being addressed,” and a major concern is whether or not there will be enough airline seats to the state once business picks up again, Baldwin said.

At the Hyatt Regency Kaua’i Resort & Spa in Po’ipu, national and international groups still wishing to come to the island are telling general manager Jerry Gibson they can’t get flights to Hawai’i.

On a normal third week of September, the resort historically has had an occupancy rate in the low 70s. Of course, this is not a normal third week of September, and the Hyatt’s occupancy rate this week is “several occupancy points lower than that,” Gibson said.

While many O’ahu hotels have already laid off many workers as the supply of Japanese tourists has slowed to a trickle, the Hyatt hasn’t had to lay off any employees – yet.

Gibson indicated that full-time workers will get fewer hours if there aren’t enough guests.

“We are not doing layoffs. We don’t want to do layoffs. We want to avoid them if we possibly can,” said Gibson, who is at the helm of one of Kauai’s largest employers. “Certainly, we don’t know what’s going to happen in the near future as far as (U.S. military) retaliation or if there’s any unfortunate incidents that are going to happen. No one knows that. But we’re running the operation as normal as we can, and trying to do the best that we can.”

Hyatt officials have been working with wholesalers, but haven’t gotten a handle on actions from major air carriers. Those announcements are expected next week, Gibson said.

“We need the support from the airlines. There’s no doubt about that,” he said. “And we’re hoping that it’s as temporary as it possibly can be, and that commerce moves forward.”

There have been cancellations of hotel reservations, and more are expected. At the same time, other groups and individuals have indicated they still plan to visit.

“We’ve been in touch with every single group that we have on the books, and certainly there’s been some cancellations, but there are still a lot of the groups that still want to come,” Gibson said.

Statewide hotel occupancy stood at 80 percent in August, a 2.2 percent drop from the same month last year, according to a survey by PFK-Hawaii.

But the decline may be considered trivial in the future.

“The August results now appear to be mild compared with what is currently happening in the marketplace, due to the recent terrorist attacks on the East Coast,” PFK-Hawaii chairman Ernie Watari said Thursday.

Hawai’i hotels “are hesitant to express their actual current occupancies, but reliable PKF sources have indicated that many hotels in Waikiki are experiencing occupancies in the teens and 20s,” Watari said.

Every island posted decreases in occupancy over August 2000.

Statewide occupancy for the first eight months of 2001 was 77.2 percent, 2.9 percent lower than the same eight-month period last year.

Only Molokai saw a slight increase in occupancy from January through August. All other islands posted declines: Kaua’i 7.4 percent, Oahu 1.4 percent, Maui 2.9 percent and Big Island 4.2 percent.

The average daily room rate last month was $171, a 6.1 percent increase over August 2000.

For the first eight months of this year, the average daily room rate was $162.94, up from $154.25 during the same period last year.

Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).

AP contributed to this report.