Hawaii’s tourism industry is expected to benefit from a Friday announcement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that it will expand air preclearance operations to Narita, Japan, and nine new foreign airports.

The preclearance program stations U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in foreign airports, clearing travelers at their point of origin to avoid lengthy processing at busy American airports. This would also allow airports without customs officers, including Kona Airport, to begin accepting international flights.

There are currently 15 preclearance locations in six foreign countries.

Last year, Japanese tourists made up 18 percent of Hawaii’s visitors and brought more than $2.5 billion into the state’s economy.

Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, co-chair of the Senate Tourism Caucus, issued a statement saying he held hearings on the state of the tourism and travel industry last year and worked with the Department of State to make it easier for low-risk international travelers to visit the U.S.

“We’ve been pushing for preclearance for two years, and it has gone from pie in the sky to reality,” Schatz said in the statement.  “This is the first step towards making it a lot easier for Japanese visitors to come to Hawaii.  Although work remains to be done, this also has enormous implications in terms of our efforts in establishing direct flights from Japan to Kona.”

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