We have heard little from hotel management of the biggest chains about the contract negotiations with hotel workers following a three-day strike across the country over the Labor Day weekend. On Sept. 24, union workers at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikīkī went on an indefinite strike.
Jerry Gibson, the head of the Hawaiʻi Hotel Alliance and a former executive for Hilton, just returned from Japan and spoke with HPR about the strike and the industry. He said strikes are extremely difficult on both sides.
"You can only hope at the end of the day, that working with the different groups and negotiating a good contract for both sides, and that all will prevail. And we hope that it doesn't last too long, for the good of the people that are on the picket line and for the, you know, for the hotels as well," Gibson said.
"It's also very, very difficult, you know, for the guests that come in and they're paying, you know, a good wage for the hotels that they come to stay at, and they expect a good experience. And it's, you know, it's difficult for them to see it too," he added.
Gibson said he thinks that while domestic travel in Japan looks busy, the rebound in Hawaiʻi will be modest — in the 8% to 10% range. He said that spending in the timeshare arena is positive and will help Hawaiʻi’s economy, though a prolonged strike may hurt sales in the short term.
But if tourism is one leg of the economic stool, the other two — military and construction — are stronger.
That comes into sharp focus on the island of Guam where the Japanese visitor count is still less than 50% of pre-pandemic numbers. South Korea is helping to boost their numbers, but military and construction are also filling rooms and holding the economy up.
"I can't imagine what we would be with pre-pandemic levels, because we just don't have enough room in the hotels to go around with all of the additional demands coming in from the military side," Guam Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio told HPR.
Military projects include the new U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz, a missile defense system, a new wing of the Singapore Air Force, and further development of Polaris Point.
Tenorio said that the pandemic greatly affected the hospitality industry and worker mobility, and now Guam has a competitive job market. He said some people were able to move away with unemployment assistance.
"So we're seeing a rotation in the population. Although I'd say in the big picture, we're expecting a big influx because of the additional military jobs that are going to be part of this economy. And of course, we're aggressively trying to return the Japanese market," Tenorio told HPR.
"You know when we're in a disadvantage when the Japanese used to come here for luxury goods shopping and get a better deal, but right now, the better deal is over in Japan."
On Tuesday, $1 was worth about 144 yen.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Oct. 1, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
