Rotary International cancels June convention, which would have brought 20,000 visitors to Hawaii

The Rotary International Convention, the state’s largest piece of group business this year, has canceled its plans to come to Hawaii in June.

The group was expected to bring some 20,000 attendees to Hawaii from June 6 to 10, but said Wednesday it was not confident in “our ability to protect convention-goers and the public from the risk of COVID-19,” or in “concrete predictions as to when restrictions on travel to the United States will be lifted.”

“These are very difficult times. We cannot know quite yet what path this virus will take. By canceling our event, we will help mitigate the number of cases in the short term to allow our health systems to respond most effectively,” Rotary said in a statement. “Rotary is grateful to the citizens of Honolulu for generously welcoming Rotary to share the beauty and culture of Hawai’i. Together, in the spirit of Aloha, we will face this crisis as one global community.”