Hawaii Governor David Ige has given his blessing for tourists to come back to the islands.
They are welcome again starting November 1.
Although not an outright ban, Ige asked visitors to stay away nearly two months ago as the state battled surging Covid cases and an overloaded healthcare system.
"Beginning November 1, we want to invite and encourage fully vaccinated visitors and residents to travel for business or leisure trans-Pacific and inter-island," Ige said.
Ige’s plea to stay away did affect visitor numbers with mass cancelations and new booking drying up.
Ige says Hawaii is now over the worst and ready to welcome them back safely.
Unvaccinated tourists are still welcome to visitwith a negative Covid-19 test upon arrival, although they will have to present a negative test to dine out or visit certain public facilities on Oahu and Maui.
Since Ige’s request, the average number of new cases has plunged from 900 to 117. Hospitalizations were also down.
"I think we are all encouraged by what we’ve seen over the last several weeks with the continuing trend of lower case counts," Ige said.
"Our health care system has responded, and we have the ability to move forward with economic recovery."
