Thousands of Chinese travelers were forced to cancel their Hawaii plans after having visa troubles, according to a report in the Honolulu Star Advertiser.
More than 6,000 distributors from China and Hong Kong for Nu Skin, a direct marketing company for personal care products, had qualified for an incentive trip to the Islands in April but will not be able to attend because they have not received visas. That number represented more than one-third of the total group, which would have been the largest incentive group to travel to Islands from China.Visa applications for large groups traveling to Hawaii normally have a far lower rejection rate, around 10% to 15%.
"We've observed that group demand has cascaded a bit. Word has spread in the industry, and it's impacting other groups. Some are postponing group bookings by a year," Reene Ho-Phang, managing director of Hawaii Tourism China, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Hawaii Tourism China and the HTA's Hong Kong representative will unveil a group travel sales blitz in the coming months, according to the report, offering incentives such as free and discounted Hawaii Convention Center space for large groups.
If the more than 6,000 Nu Skin members had been able to come to Hawaii, the Hawaii Tourism Authority estimated it would have meant a boost in corporate spending of $15.9 million and $1.9 million in additional tax revenue. With more than 2,000 of the Nu Skin incentive winners now bound for Bali, Indonesia, instead, the corporate spending and tax revenue estimate for the Islands is halved, to $7.9 million and $928,200, respectively.