Extension sought for passport deadline
By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer
Tourism officials in Hawai'i and around the country want Congress to postpone enforcing stricter security requirements for international travelers entering the United States.
The federal government passed legislation in 2001 and 2002 to require that by Oct. 26, 2003, foreign travelers who can enter the U.S. without a visa, including Japanese, hold technologically advanced passports with biometric identifiers such as fingerprints or iris recognition in order to enter the United States.
But last year the Secretary of State determined that most countries could not meet the deadline and it was delayed for one year to Oct. 26, 2004.
Last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge wrote to House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner Jr. saying legislation is needed to postpone the date again until December 2006.
"We need to extend that deadline," said Marsha Wienert, Gov. Linda Lingle's tourism liaison.
About one-third of tourists to Hawai'i arrive on international flights, mostly from Japan. Hawai'i's tourism industry could be hurt if the deadline is not extended and countries cannot issue the new passports in time.
If that happens, "that just means the lines get longer, there's more frustration, and with all that going on, Hawai'i becomes not a place where people want to go.... It's going to hurt inbound travel badly," said Rex Johnson, executive director of the Hawai'i Tourism Authority.
Sensenbrenner has written to 21 ambassadors to the United States, including the Japanese ambassador, asking for information to determine whether the deadline should be extended.
The House judiciary committee plans to hold a hearing on the issue next month, according to Dexter Koehl, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Travel Industry Association, which is heading the effort to push for an extension of the deadline.
The association's board of directors, which Polynesian Cultural Center vice president of sales and marketing P. Alfred Grace sits on, plans to meet with the Department of Homeland Security for a briefing on the issue.
Reach Kelly Yamanouchi at kyamanouchi@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2470.
