HONOLULU – The president and CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority said travel demand for the Hawaiian Islands was unaffected after a false alert of an inbound missile to Hawaii was mistakenly issued Saturday by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
HONOLULU – The president and CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority said travel demand for the Hawaiian Islands was unaffected after a false alert of an inbound missile to Hawaii was mistakenly issued Saturday by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
“Thankfully, we have seen little to no impact in travel demand for the Hawaiian Islands in these first few days following the false alert of an inbound missile threat to Hawaii that was mistakenly issued by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency,” George D. Szigeti said.
He said they are monitoring the situation and maintaining contact with tourism marketing partners in 10 global travel markets.
He said HTA’s marketing efforts to promote travel to Hawaii will continue.
“If we see an increase in trip cancellations or a decline in future bookings due to the false alert, we will immediately assess and take the necessary actions to help reverse such a trend from continuing,” he said.
Tourism can be a fragile industry, Szigeti said, and the confidence of travelers in booking trips can be shaken by an incident like this.
“Our message to travelers continues to be that there is no cause to cancel trips already booked to Hawaii or to look elsewhere for a vacation because of this false alert,” he said. “Hawaii is and continues to be a safe, secure and welcoming destination to all visitors from around the world.”
