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As of Monday, 70% of eligible adults in the United States had received at least the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccination, and the U.S. has shipped more than 110 million doses to 65 countries.

The New York Times reports that the 70% vaccination benchmark comes about four weeks after President Biden's initial deadline — Independence Day — and was announced without fanfare on Twitter by Cyrus Shahpar, the COVID-19 data director for the Biden administration.

A recent uptick in states such as Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana and Florida — where rates previously had demonstrated some vaccine hesitancy — contributed to reaching the goal, the article noted.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government also surpassed its goal of sharing 80 million vaccine doses overseas, also about a month later than expected, the Wall Street Journal reports.

"Natalie Quillian, deputy coordinator of Mr. Biden’s COVID-19 response, said the administration ultimately delivered the 80 million doses and sent an additional 30 million overseas. She said it has worked in recent weeks with vaccine manufacturers, foreign governments and international aid groups to overcome what she called 'operational issues' that slowed the initial exports," the Journal reports.

Reporting the company's second quarter earnings, Marriott International CEO Anthony Capuano said that "the rate of global lodging recovery accelerated during the second quarter and momentum has continued into July."

He touted the resiliency of revenue per available room, a key performance benchmark, in "markets where consumers feel safe traveling," and noted that while the company is mindful of rising COVID-19 cases due to variant strains, "we are optimistic that the upward trajectory of the global recovery will continue."

HNN's Bryan Wroten reports that for the quarter, Marriott's systemwide RevPAR worldwide was up 262.6% over the second quarter of 2020, but down 43.8% from the same period in 2019.

Hotels in Portland, Maine, like many across the U.S. and around the world, are coping with a labor shortage as travel demand ramps back up, forcing everyone on short staffs — including the general manager — to take on multiple tasks, including laundry and waiting tables in the hotel restaurant, reports CentralMaine.com, a division of the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel.

Scott Marn, manager at the Westin Portland Harborview Hotel, told the news outlet that “this is absolutely the most challenging time I have ever experienced" in his 36-year hotel industry career. “But what’s amazing for a veteran like myself is to see how the staff that you do have is willing to pitch in and do anything and everything to take care of the guests.”

Potentially compounding the labor shortage, seasonal student workers will be going back to school in the fall, the news outlet reports. For the Portland Regency Hotel & Spa, that will mean losing workers like Patrick Becker, a student at Endicott College, who for two months has been working the front desk, maintenance, cleaning and helping with accounting.

“There is certainly going to be an extra pinch come fall,” Matt Lewis, president and CEO of MaineHospitality, said.

Beginning Aug. 5, airline passengers from India, Pakistan, Nigeria and other countries will be allowed to transit through the United Arab Emirates, a major international travel hub, according to the National Emergency and Crisis Management Authority.

The UAE is lifting a ban on transit passenger traffic from those countries on the condition that passengers test negative for COVID-19 72 hours prior to flying, Reuters reports. UAE airports will arrange separate lounges for transiting passengers, the authority announced.

Hotels in Maui have benefited from a surge in visitors — more than 260,000 in June, compared to 1,900 a year ago — but drought conditions have led officials there to declare a water shortage in some parts of the archipelago, and as a result, some local residents are urging visitors to stay away, The Washington Post reports.

“Stop coming to Hawai'i. They are treating us like second-class citizens, literally cutting off our water to feed overtourism,” former state lawmaker Kaniela Ing tweeted last month, sharing screenshots about the water usage prohibitions. The post got more than 144,000 likes and 53,000 retweets.

The Maui hotel market has achieved the highest average daily rate of all U.S. markets for the past 15 weeks. In the week ending July 24, ADR in the market topped $573, Isaac Collazo, VP of analytics at STR, reported for Hotel News Now.