Bed bugs are now more widely found on media reports on broader topics than bed bug infestations and new bed bug-proof mattress encasements. For example, this article from Time about Barack Obama’s upcoming week-long vacation visit to his native Hawai’i:
Obama is also scheduled to hold a fundraiser at the posh Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki that could rake in more than $500,000, reaping the rewards of being the first presidential nominee to travel to Hawaii since Richard Nixon in 1960. There’s no word on where he might be staying during his visit, but he may want to avoid that particular hotel, which suffered a plague of bed bugs in April, according to the Pacific Business Journal.
This is a past story from Bedbugger about a woman who claimed to encounter bed bugs at a function at the Halekulani Hotel, and bring them home.
You may be interested to know that, unlike the head of the Tennessee Hotel and Lodging Association who was quoted here yesterday as calling bed bugs a “non-issue” in Tennessee hotels, the Hawai’i hotel industry group is admitting bed bugs are a problem in Hawai’i, and is taking steps to improve the situation.
According to this article in the Pacific Business Journal,
The state House approved a nonbinding resolution in 2006 that asked the Department of Health to work with the state’s tourism liaison and the Hawaii Hotel & Lodging Association to raise awareness on dealing with bedbugs.
A symposium on dealing with bedbugs is in the works, said Murray Towill, president of the Hawaii Hotel & Lodging Association.
Great news! I am glad to hear that government and industry are admitting there is a bed bug issue in Hawai’i, and working to address it together.
There’s no doubt in my mind that bed bugs are spreading in hotels in all fifty states. Hotel industry folks everywhere should be working on stopping the spread of bed bugs, not playing ostrich and hiding their heads in the sand.
