A reflective day in Waikiki

By Susan Hooper and Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writers

Yolanda Seiuli knew the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks would likely mean a slow day at the Budget Car and Truck Rental location in Waikiki where she is a customer service representative.

At Kuhio Beach, a sparse showing of swimmers and sunbathers marks the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks far away from Waikiki. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We had a customer who came in and told us he's so sorry but he was going to have to cancel his reservation," she said yesterday. "He said he had family in New York, and he just didn't feel he could go out and drive today."

The thousands of miles between Hawai'i and the sites of last year's Sept. 11 terrorist attacks seemed to shrink for a second time yesterday, as the combined emotional and economic toll from the tragedies spread a solemn mood among businesses and visitors in Waikiki.

Many companies in the heart of Hawai'i's tourism industry have begun to recover from the sharp drop in visitors since those terrorist attacks, but the quiet of the days surrounding the one-year anniversary reminded many of the uncertainty that has plagued them for 12 months.

On the same streets yesterday, hundreds of the tourists who are customers of those businesses marked the occasion in their own ways.

Some took part in a quiet memorial service, tossing lei into the surf. Others spoke of the paths that took them to a tropical playground on a somber day.

Pat Manno and Penne Marino, who carried a flag-decorated towel and handbag yesterday, said memories of Sept. 11 were heavy on their minds.

In remembrance, they said, they planned to visit Pearl Harbor. "We were actually thinking Hawai'i is a good place to be," Manno said. "It's a very soul-searching time."

The peace offered by the Islands also soothed Bimal Ghosh, a doctor from Manhattan who was just a few miles from the World Trade Center when it was attacked.

Kehau Kruse, of Makakilo, invokes a Hawaiian chant and prayer at Kuhio Beach in Waikiki. The ceremony , with police and firefighters participating, was sponsored by two hotels. Associated Press

Patriotism mixed with that peacefulness yesterday in many parts of Waikiki. Ken Sato, associate manager of ABC Store No. 14 at the diamondhead end of Kalakaua Avenue, wore a small American flag pinned to his shirt and said the event of last year "hit home with a lot of us."

Sato, who was at the store on that date last year, said business dropped about 50 percent after the attacks and stayed down for four to five months before recovering to "almost normal" levels. But in the past week, as the anniversary drew near, business dropped again, this time about 25 percent from usual levels.

To mark the anniversary, the store's window displayed a sign with a drawing of a red-white-and-blue ribbon above the words: "We are all New York. We are all Washington. We are all Pennsylvania. We are all one."

The few customers in the store yesterday were buying special editions of the newspapers as well as small pins depicting the American flag, Sato said.

Business was also relatively slow for Angie Young, with Amy's Shell Shop, a kiosk near the ABC store. At midday, she described the mood on the sidewalk around her kiosk as muted, with some cars driving by with headlights on and more American flags in evidence.

"They're kind of more somber today," she said of both the neighborhood regulars and the customers she'd seen. "It's been quiet. No one's laughing."

The number of empty rooms in Waikiki hotels is one key measure of the anniversary's impact. O'ahu hotel occupancy for the week ended Sept. 7 was down nearly 14 percent from one year earlier, to 58.2 percent, according to the consulting firm Smith Travel Research/Hospitality Advisors LLC.

Carol Hanna, rooms division manager with the Aston Waikiki Beachside Hotel on Kalakaua Avenue, said her 79-room property had not been "dramatically impacted" by the anniversary, perhaps because of its small size.

But for Hanna, the year since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has been tough. Then she was working for American Hawaii Cruises; she lost her job when the leisure cruise company's parent declared bankruptcy in October 2001 because of business lost after the attacks.

Hanna was out of work for nine months before being hired by Aston in July. But she counts herself lucky: Many of her friends from American Hawaii Cruises are still unemployed, she said.

Seiuli, at Budget's office on Ala Moana, feels the way Hanna does about the attacks. She said she is happy that she was able to keep her job, although she saw overtime hours cut during the long months when business was weak after the attacks.

And she even saw business at the company's four Waikiki locations pick up from January through August, until it slowed again this month because of the anniversary and the usual end-of-summer slump.

But the attacks and their aftermath in Hawai'i have never been far from her thoughts.

"I've had a lot of worries whether or not I would have a job," she said. "... I think about it (the attacks) a lot. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about it."

But while those thoughts were not far from many workers' and visitors' minds yesterday, a resilience and resolve also showed through.

Raymond Post from San Jacinto, Calif., said he believes that the passengers who played a role in overcoming hijackers and diverting the plane that crashed into a field in western Pennsylvania a year earlier may have felt that Americans shouldn't "just sit down and give up."

"I'm not saying we're not sad about this going on," Post said. "But the thing is you have to go on living. ...

"I think they'd want us to go out and see things, and do things — not sit around and mope."