Kauai Businesses: ‘We Can’t Survive’ Without Travel…With tourism effectively canceled for the 2020 holiday season, a number of Kauai resorts and businesses are closing again — some for good.
In November, after a seven-month shutdown because of the coronavirus, Kauai’s largest hotel brought back nearly half its staff of 900 and reopened to the public as demand for a Garden Isle vacation suddenly surged following the implementation of the state’s new pre-travel testing program.
Occupancy rates at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa were less than half of what they would typically be during the buildup to the holiday season, said Katy Britzmann, the sales and marketing director for the Poipu resort.
But considering the realities of the global pandemic, signs of economic recovery were bubbling up enough to merit unstacking the pool furniture and firing up the restaurants.
