User:MDCAgcaoili/sandbox

Lead Section Addition:
In early 2020, tourism in Hawaii took a large hit as the effects of COVID-19 introduced widespread of adversity for the government, businesses, and the community. Government officials and numerous inputs from the community swayed lawmakers to induce restrictions for Hawaii. Factors such as unemployment, shutting down of small businesses, and travel restrictions were some of the many interventions that took place within the timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hawaii. Throughout the course of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the State of Hawaii has also been faced with economic impacts like the decline in visitor expenditures and reduction in overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Government officials and other parties have taken numerous proactive decisions to combat increasing case numbers and other economic factors. As Hawaii looks forward to recovery by taking precautions to reopen tourism, both internationally and domestically, the State of Hawaii's recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic is one that is ongoing into 2021.

Tourism in Hawaii's Economy
Out of the different economic indicators that are in consideration for the state of Hawaii, tourism comprises nearly three of twelve categories. This can make tourism the largest economic driver and indicator in Hawaii's economy. Throughout 2019, reports have recorded a total of 17.75 billion dollars in visitor expenditure and state tax revenue of 2.07 billion dollars. These both increased nearly 1.4 percent from the previous. In the same year, nearly 216,000 jobs were tourism-related. Visitor arrivals totaled nearly 10.4 million, a 5.4 percent increase from 2018, and nearly 14 million airline seats were occupied, a 2.9 percent increase from 2018). In 2020, the reports indicated estimated employment of approximately 113 thousand occupations related to Accommodation and Food services, a category a majority of tourism professions fall under.

Unemployment
In the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the number of daily arrivals to Hawaii took a sharp drop in March 2020 when Mayor Kirk Caldwell issued a state-wide lockdown. This lockdown caused large amounts of unemployment across the entire state. Before the lockdown, the number of unemployment claims totaled nearly 18,000 claims. However, when the state-wide lockdown was issued, Hawaii saw a large increase to nearly 185,570 claims in a single month (March 28, 2020 - April 25, 2020). Hawaii's unemployment rate climbed upward to 24 percent. This took a significant hit on Hawaii's GDP and economy (see Economic Effects). As COVID-19 cases progressively reduced in the coming months, Hawaii reopened. Restrictions were still held in the coming months when Hawaii saw a steep rise in the average daily arrivals from less than 1,000 from March to Mid-September of 2020, to a jump at over 5,000 in October and peaked at more than 35,000 in June of 2021.

Overview
Throughout 2020, the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the State of Hawaii dropped nearly 8 percent from the previous year. This is the largest drop of in Hawaii's annual GDP since 1997. This translates to either a decease in consumption, investment, government purchases, and net exports of the State of Hawaii. With the effects of COVID-19, the trend of personal income per capita has been fairly closely related within each county of Hawaii. Each specific county mirrors the movement of the U.S. average which indicates the very little effect on personal income. Average personal income per capita has averaged nearly sixty-thousand dollars and ranges from approximately forty-five-thousand to sixty-thousand dollars per capita. Each county has a wavering trend of personal income per capita due to difference in the size and population of each major county in Hawaii. Visitor expenditures saw a 70.6 percent decrease from approximately eighteen-thousand million dollars in 2019, to a decline of five-thousand million dollars in 2020 when the pandemic occurred. This value factors largely within Hawaii's annual GDP fluctuation as tourism is a large economic factor in the State of Hawaii.

Small Businesses
Although there was only one statewide lockdown, small businesses faced two lengthy lockdowns during the spring and the summer. Small businesses saw a large negative effect at the inception of statewide lockdown, and nearly 56.6 percent of businesses claimed to have this state of effect. In addition, nearly 32.4 percent of small businesses claimed their total operating revenue was $0-500, 11.8 percent with $501-2,500, 12.9 percent with $2,501-5,000, and 18.1 with $5,001-15,000. Hawaii's 32.4 percent of small businesses with operating revenue of $0-500 is nearly 9.4 percent higher than the national average. With the reopening of small businesses and tourism, small businesses needed methods of regulation and safety precautions for operation. In September of 2020, Mayor Kirk Caldwell introduce a tier system and recovery framework to implement in businesses in Oahu. Throughout recovery and slow progress toward the efforts of lowering the number of cases, Oahu proceeded to make its way through each specific tier. Each tier would allow for more lenient restrictions in ascending tiers. After a year of implementing Honolulu's COVID-19 Recovery Framework, a new updated system called the Safe Oahu Response Plan was implemented in September of 2021. Small businesses look forward to recovering as the State of Hawaii aims to allow domestic and international travel on November 1, 2020.

Travel Restrictions
In the wake of the state-wide lockdown issued by Mayor Kirk Caldwell, tourism in Hawaii took a steep drop with it as well. From February to April 2020 alone saw nearly a 99 percent decrease in visitor arrivals. Mayor Kirk Caldwell issued a statewide order for a 14-day quarantine for all Hawaii travel arrivals. Visitors would only be permitted to leave their areas for necessities to obtain food or medical care. As tourism and arrivals started to pick up the pace, the State of Hawaii implemented a mandatory health form to be completed for travelers. The form would ask for information based on the travelers' basic travel information and their state of COVID-19 to be allowed to travel to Hawaii. Questions would be added or removed based on the restriction stages of Hawaii. On October 19, 2021, Governor David Ige set forth an announcement to reopen the State of Hawaii to international and domestic travel for business or pleasure. Starting November 8, 2021, both Non-U.S. and U.S. citizens are allowed to travel to Hawaii following federal requirements set by the government, one of them being proof of vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test result.