Hawaii Mulls Plans to Make Travel Easier for Tourists from Japan

As tourism from Japan, Hawaii’s top international visitor market, has been sluggish since the pandemic, the US state mulls plans to boost tourism to the islands.

Hawaii leaders want to make it easier for tourists from Japan to visit the US state by creating a pre-clearance program allowing travellers from the country to save time at the Honolulu airport by completing immigration, customs and agricultural inspections before departure. Tourism from Japan, Hawaii’s top international visitor market, has been sluggish since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hawaii leaders want to make it easier for tourists from Japan to visit the US state. They wanted to do so by creating a pre-clearance program.

This will be allowing travellers from the country to save time at the Honolulu airport. It will be by completing immigration, customs and agricultural inspections before departure.

Gov. Josh Green and other state officials proposed the idea during a recent visit to Tokyo.

Green hopes the program will help boost tourism to the islands, news media reported Tuesday.

Hawaii is keen on bringing more travelers from Japan back because “that’s the tourist that knows how to carry themselves in Hawaii and how to care for our aina and so on,” Green said, using the Hawaiian word for land. A pre-clearance program, which has been discussed for many years, could open direct routes to other islands, including Maui, Green said.

Soon after a deadly wildfire wiped out much of the west Maui town of Lahaina, the Japan government donated $2 million in humanitarian aid.