[ OUR OPINION ]
HAWAII'S tourism industry was braced for the worst as American troops prepared their assault on Iraq, but the economic damage to the state may be limited and a recovery strong. State officials and business leaders have prepared well for this day after weathering a lengthy period of anticipation. War should not necessarily send the state's economy into the doldrums. If it is brief and decisive with minimum casualties, Americans may breathe their deepest sigh of relief in a year and a half. Isle economy can weather
storm of brief war
THE ISSUE The beginning of the war in Iraq follows a period of anticipation that itself has been damaging to Hawaii's economy.
"The sooner we do it, the faster we do it, the better and safer the world will be," Rodolfo Castillo, a 40-year-old fashion designer in Beverly Hills., Calif., told The New York Times. "The uncertainty of what is going to happen is the worst part of it."
That feeling is reflected in Hawaii's tourism numbers in recent weeks and months. Aloha Airlines spokesman Stu Glauberman estimates that bookings in traffic in March are down 10 percent "over the trepidation of war." Hawaiian Airlines likewise has experienced a decline in bookings for the next two months. Part of the problem has been the rising cost of fuel, but oil prices have begun to drop in the past week, and prices are expected to plunge further after the end of the Iraq war.
The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism also attributes the reduction in expected visitor activity to "the heightened potential for war," said director Ted Liu. As Leroy Laney, an economics professor at Hawaii Pacific University, explained earlier this week: "Essentially we are already at war."
The remaining uncertainty concerns the length of the war. The state Legislature is preparing a package of economic measures to control the damage during the war and accelerate tourism's recovery at war's end. House Speaker Calvin Say said those include eliminating landing fees for airlines if they keep up their flights, extending unemployment benefits and health-care coverage and increasing security for harbors, airports and utilities.
As the war was about to begin, Governor Lingle continued to insist that Hawaii is not as vulnerable as the rest of the country to terrorist attack. While Hawaii is among five states that have chosen threat levels independent of the federal system, it is the only state that did not raise its level to the orange, or "high," level implemented by Tom Ridge, the Homeland Security secretary. Hawaii's level remains at blue, or "guarded," two levels below orange.
Lingle said raising the state's threat level would harm tourism and cost the state the expense of increasing security at public buildings and facilities. She explained that Ridge's conference call with the nation's governors on Tuesday included no mention of an "additional credible threat" to Hawaii. However, Ridge's call was only a general assessment with no specific intelligence information about a threat to any state.
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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
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Lucy Young-Oda, Assistant Editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.comMary Poole, Editorial Page Editor, 529-4748; mpoole@starbulletin.com
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