Disasters May Curb Japanese Tourism

Hawaii’s Council on Revenues has scheduled an emergency meeting for Tuesday in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan.

The council is the official body that sets the revenue projections the governor and lawmakers use to put together the state budget.

The council met earlier this month and reduced its revenue growth projection for fiscal 2011 to 0.5% from 3%.

But more trouble may be in store for the Aloha State’s economy in the wake of the disaster in Japan, which is a sizable market for tourism to Hawaii. Tourism dominates the state economy.

“The state’s fiscal challenge may be greater than we thought due to events that happened since the Council on Revenues made its most recent report,” Gov. Neil Abercrombie said in a statement.

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Hawaii
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