State targets visa backlog

By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer

Travel from China fell from 3,419 visitor arrivals last June to just 706 this past June, according to the most recent state figures available. Hawai'i sees China as one of the biggest potential tourism markets, but only if visa restrictions loosen. The strict policies have delayed processing of visas and even caused travelers to miss their trips. Bloomberg News Service

Travel from China and Korea has already suffered from the stricter entry requirements imposed after the Sept. 11 attacks, including requirements that travelers have face-to-face interviews at American embassies before obtaining their travel documents.

Because the embassies don't have additional staff or money to conduct the interviews, travelers sometimes wait weeks or months to get visas — and some miss their trips.

"That has caused a significant backlog and it's had a really terrible impact on us," said Ted Liu, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

The stricter visa restrictions come online as the state is recovering from the war in Iraq and SARS epidemic, and as it attempts to diversify and market Hawai'i to countries beyond Japan.

Although the interview requirement took effect Aug. 1, the state will not have visitor numbers for the countries affected for several more months.

But officials have been hearing about the trouble that the interview requirements are causing, and they don't like the result.

Liu cited the example of 60 venture capitalists from China who wanted to attend the Wayne Brown Institute's Fifth Annual Investors Choice Conference at the Turtle Bay Resort Sept. 30-Oct. 1. The group members, however, could not get their visas in time and missed the conference, Liu said.

"It's one of the most serious problems that I think a lot of us face in the travel business," said Hawai'i Tourism Authority executive director Rex Johnson. "It's a big, big deal for us in Hawai'i."

More than 90 percent of Hawai'i tourists are from the Mainland, Canada or Japan and none require tourist visas. But the slowdown in processing could still have a significant effect on the tourism industry. Visitors from countries that require tourist visas made up about 6.2 percent of all tourists to Hawai'i in 2001, according to the latest state figures.

The tourism authority, Gov. Linda Lingle's tourism liaison Marsha Wienert, Liu's department and others are researching the visa issues and working on a strategic plan to ease travel.

"Hopefully we'll have something that we can present to the federal government by the end of next month," Wienert said.

State officials say they may propose a visa allowing longer stays or multiple entries to allow frequent business travelers with visas from China or Korea to travel without reapplying and being interviewed each time. They hope the government will allow the change when security features, including fingerprinting, are added to visas.

The multiple-entry visa could benefit travelers from China who are part of official government delegations or business travelers who may need to return to Hawai'i more than once, Liu said.

Liu also wants to ensure Hawai'i has the technology in place to convince federal officials that Hawai'i is prepared for enhanced security procedures.

It may help, too, to educate travelers on how to fill out visa forms correctly because incorrect applications may delay the process further, Wienert said.

The most recent state figures available show travel from China declined from 3,419 visitor arrivals in June 2002 to just 706 this June. Similar steep drops in tourists were seen in April and May.

"Of course the war and SARS is one of the effects, but I think there's apprehension also in some of those markets, too, in regards to the process they have to go through," Wienert said.

The state views China as one of the biggest potential tourism markets for Hawai'i, but only if visa restrictions loosen. In post-Sept. 11, state officials acknowledge it will be more difficult to make a case for exceptions to the visa rules.

Japan is a visa-waiver country, which tourism officials are particularly grateful for as the Department of Homeland Security reviews visa policies.

But such countries must provide updated, machine-readable passports, and that has the travel industry worried. The federal administration agreed to put off a deadline to have the passports in place until October 2004 because countries, including Japan, couldn't comply with the requirement in time.

State officials have discussed their visa concerns and the effect on travel with federal security officials and the Bureau of Consular Affairs.

The state had made progress with a pilot program in 2001 for a Hawai'i-only visa for travel from China, but "that got shelved after Sept. 11," Liu said.

Now, the state is taking a different approach.

"We're not asking for special treatment," Liu said. But because travel is so important to the state, "we've got to do more than what other states might want to do."

"We've been offering ourselves up as partners as opposed to going in there and complaining," he said.

Reach Kelly Yamanouchi at 535-2470 or at kyamanouchi@honoluluadvertiser.com.