Hawaiians miss Canada – the snow, to be precise. Indeed, the delegation of state tourism reps who would otherwise have visited this country on their annual mission were “stuck” back in the islands having to correspond with their Canadian trade partners virtually during the first-ever (and first-ever needed) “Aloha Canada 2020” event last week.

While Canadians could be so lucky to be where they were, the Hawaiian group – Maile Brown (Kauai), Karishma Chowfin (Oahu), Deanna Isbister (Island of Hawaii) and Randy Parker (Maui) – would have rather been here in person, offering invitations to visit the islands that they say sorely miss their Canadian friends.

Of course, effective this month, Canadians producing a negative COVID-19 result are welcome to arrive again in the islands on Air Canada and WestJet flights without the need to quarantine for up to 14 days, but are still subject to do so upon return, making visiting – like most other travel during the pandemic – problematic.

“We’re anxious for Canadians to return,” Kauai’s Brown told Travel Industry Today, though she admitted to being “the elephant in the room,” since Kauai has opted out of the state’s aforementioned pre-travel testing program, unlike neighbouring its islands.

She assured that the measure is temporary, pending COVID cases counts on the mainland and in the islands, adding that there is talk of reducing the length of the required quarantine. “But really,” she adds, “we’re fingers crossed that case counts go down and vaccines become successful and widespread.”

Parker, from Maui, noted that Hawaii has a “huge” elderly population, requiring the islands to be particularly careful to keep COVID at bay. “It’s our job to keep them protected,” he says.

But he adds that Canadians tend to be respectful travellers who obey the rules. “The nice thing about Canadians,” he says, “is that they’re not just visitors, they’re invested in culture; they want to be part of it, not just bystanders.”

And this notion bodes well for the future, he says, as islanders re-assess the sustainability of tourism there and “how we keep the islands pristine.”

Despite some highly publicized cases of tourists running amok during the pandemic, Chowfin says that visitors on Oahu and the other islands have been exceedingly respectful. “For every hundred people that are following the rules you get the one that isn’t. I live on Oahu and everyone is masking up and keeping their social distance.”

Deanna Isbister notes that the Big Island last week re-introduced secondary rapid testing for all visitors upon arrival (20-minute results).

“In talking to people, a lot of them don’t mind,” she says. “They’re willing to go ahead to do the second test to help us with the effort (to fight COVID).”

She adds, “We are excited to welcome our Canadian hoaloah (friends) back – just making sure they’re doing it correctly!”

At the Aloha Canada event Thursday, hosted by VoX International (which represents the state here), close to 400 travel agents and trade watched videos, took part in webinars, and engaged directly with two dozens partners from the US and Canada in an Exhibit Hall during the course of the four-hour event.

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