The night of December 19. ZIPAIR, an LCC subsidiary of Japan Airlines, took off from Narita Airport to Honolulu, carrying 26 passengers and 14 tons of cargo.
Hawaii is a popular tourist destination for Japanese, with 1.57 million Japanese visiting Hawaii in 2018, second only to the 6.37 million tourists from the U.S. mainland; Canada, in third place, has 530,000, making it the top foreign destination.
In recent years, Chinese tourists have dominated the world, but in Hawaii, there are still many Japanese tourists. However, the amount of money that Japanese spend on shopping in Hawaii is about half that of Chinese
There is a theory that Japanese people like Hawaii because it is the closest place to the United States. In addition, the flight time of seven and a half hours from Tokyo is shorter than the ten hours or more it takes to get to the U.S. mainland or Europe, and above all, the climate is good.
As a resort, it is a safe place to go with your family, and the fact that you can speak at least a little Japanese is a big plus.
Even so, the United States has the highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the world.
According to the John Hopkins University website, the number of confirmed cases in Honolulu is 17,178 (1,752,710 tested. (By the way, the population of Honolulu is 820,000, so it seems that each person has been tested several times. The number of people who died is 218.
In Japan, of the 4.38 million people tested, 201,933 were confirmed infected. The number of people who died is 2,893.
As far as the published numbers are concerned, Japan has by far the lowest number of confirmed cases per population. However, the number of tests in Japan is very low, so the actual number of infected people must be much higher.
Hawaii receives 10 million tourists a year. The number of overseas tourists coming to Japan is 32 million. That's a ridiculously large number of tourists that tiny Hawaii is accepting.
That's why the damage caused by the corona disaster is so tremendous.
Due to such circumstances, from November, Japanese tourists have been exempted from the two-week quarantine in Hawaii if they have been tested negative in advance.
ZIPAIR's decision to launch the Narita-Honolulu flight was based on this trend.
Fares start at 19,800 yen for a one-way trip and as low as 59,800 yen for a full-flat business-class seat.
In addition, a set of PCR tests at the time of departure and return is 39,800 yen.
I'm concerned about the infection, but if it's only 80,000 yen round trip including the fare, I'd like to go. The hotels are probably cheaper too.
There are not many tourists, so it will be a bit of a lonely trip, but if you want to relax, no problem.
As for Cebu, the restrictions on entry into the Philippines are still in place, and the future is not clear at all.
Seeing this trend in Hawaii, I think it's time for Cebu Island to start accepting tourists, too.
