With visitors in an uproar. What are your feelings about the fee proposed by Green in addition and all of the other Hawaii taxes and fees?
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270 thoughts on “Updated: $50 Hawaii Visitor Fee & Reducing Tourists Confirmed By Next Governor”
Is this a “Govenor Green” fee or an enviromental “Green Fee?” If Environmental, the fee should absolutely be applied to residents and visitors alike. The state residents are creating all forms of “pollution” 365 days/yr, but most tourists are there 7 days/yr.
Having visited the islands 4 times in the last 12 years, I agree there are more tourists than most the islands can accommodate easily, but that is the case everywhere, including all the national parks I’ve visited in the past 12 months: Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Acadia, Rocky Mountain. While they have entrance fees, which are far less than $50pp & fees are the same for everyone regardless of the state residency. HI lodging tax is high enough and should cover “tourist damage.”
Our island is not a play ground for tourist that come here to frolick and have a big ‘ole party. We the residents of Hawaii don’t want unwanted visitors running a muck all over our island. It’s a code of conduct kind of thing we need to educate our tourist on, but why? Because it’s a problem, come on people. I’m sure if this were happening in your back yard how would you like it?
2:1 reduction on rooms. All new hotel construction should require a reduction of 2 rooms to permit the construction of 1 new room. This does a few things
1. Removes old and out-of-date hotel product from the market
2. Increases the tax base
3. Increases the quality of the consumer visiting Hawaii (generally will have higher disposable income, more inclined to spend more per visitor with less strain on infastructure)
4. Pushes up the rev par/ADR by removing lower quality product and rooms from market
Hawaii government is completely inept, untrustworthy and corrupt. Putting more money in the hands of these government officials is like giving $100 to a child before entering a candy shop and telling them to spend their money wisely.
So if we go on a multi-island vacation, are we expected to pay the fee on each island?
Let’s just say this is for non-residents…
What if I’m not coming to “visit” but I’m coming to do business? Or my family already lives in HI and I’m living with them off and on? Or I own property but I don’t live there 100% of the time.
And the biggest question, what in the heck are you gong to do with all that money?
Did you not read this post? The money hopefully will put local families at the forefront instead of in the back. Affordable homes sounds good to me. We need more affordable everything here in the islands. Being born and raised in Hawaii from generations and generations, we are being pushed out due to the rise in food, gas, real-estate etc. Why? Because of foreign investors buying all our land and resources. So yes we need the extra money implemented for our economy for more affordable homes, to protect our environment and better Healthcare and education for our local residents of Hawaii and if this idea turns people off then I think that’s the whole idea of it, to lessen the amount of people arriving into our islands daily.
I would pay a special visitor environment impact fee to help protect Hawaii beach, wildlife etc. I would spend a day or half day of my visit volunteering for the privilege of visiting Hawaii again. I visited Oahu with one son and then the big island with my other son. My sons agree with me to preserve Hawaii for future generations. Aloha, mahalo
Great. Maybe you should also pay a green fee at every airport you stopped at, every state you fly over, and every place you bought a drink when you traveled? How about an extra $700 per person. When does it stop?
We’ve been coming to Waikiki for 8 years, sometimes twice a year.
I can’t see how another 350 million per year is going to solve the impact tourism has had. Impacts are more far reaching then just tourism, Growing population, over development to list a couple. Our current trip is probably our last to Waikiki as it’s gotten too crowded, too loud from street performers, cars, motorcycle s with little or no exhaust or “gun sound” blasting exhaust, all taking away from a relaxing time.
Good luck with the tax idea. I’m out most likely anyway, back to S Florida maybe.
Thank you for seeing our island and it’s people for what they truly are. Respect our people and culture when visiting to Hawaii.
Hawaii is just not tourist-friemdly anymore. With high prices for lodging, restaurants and car rentals And a distinct lack of desire for our business, why go to Hawaii? Go to Mexico, a cruise in the Caribbean or some island in the Caribbean that actually wants your business And do it at a reasonable price.
Well yes everything here in Hawaii is expensive. This is why Josh Green is implementing this travel fee for tourist. I’m hoping this gets approved, we truly need to find a solution that will boost our local economy for our our local communities.
But how will your economy get boosted if we can no longer afford because your State and Counties are Nickel and Diming us to death? If we stay away then what happens? We are already being taxed to death with almost 20% on top of our stay. My family and I have been coming since 1995 and this is seriously taking all the Joy out of the Happiest Place on Earth.
I feel there should be no fees or taxes without clear and explicit accountability where the money goes. I think if I’m paying for parking at the beach, paying daily per head for my family to be on the beach, paying to “look at the view”, excessive car and vacation stay fees, and now green fee, I want to know exactly what improvements have been made with these collected taxes and fees. Definitely it should be a yearly report and made available when you arrive at the airport! Hawaii seems to be a money pit. There’s a heck of a lot of money coming in from existing excessive charges, but a mystery where it goes.
Alpha Rob,
Does this fee apply to inter-island travel? Also, if it does, does that mean you pay it both directions? The hypothetical is this: we are a family of four and we live on O’ahu and want to visit friends/family on BI. Would it be $200 each leg ($400 roundtrip) extra for this hypothetical?
This would be a horrible idea for residents. Lots of people on Moloka’i have to travel to/from Maui and O’ahu for medical treatment on a regular basis. Contractors do inter-island work often. That extra $50 per person? They will pass that onto the customer.
This plans wreaks of failure.
Hopefully it’s only out of state visitors and not residents. We’re already paying high taxes plus paying for the rail. A big disaster!
Kapiolani: if this comes to pass they would have to apply it equitably. If they limit it to only visitors they run the risk of violating the 14th Amendment. There are better ways to generate income than this concept. We pay elected officials to apply critical thinking to address and solve problems. They are doing neither with this proposal. And if it does pass, the state will get litigated snd end up costing more money.
If, and that is a very big “if,” thr state could show tangible progress from this tax then I might consider it….but we have a horrible track record here with politicians and their management of our tax dollars. It reminds me of living in/near Chicago, except the people are nice here and the view from my window is better.
Ah. So this is how we are going to finance the boondoggle of “the train” here on O’ahu. I knew we’d find a way to pay for the $3bn, no $5bn, no $9bn, no wait, I think it is somewhere between $11-12bn now, train.
Residents should not have to pay this fee.
As a frequent visitor & past resident, I’d be happy to pay the fee IF (and it’s a big one) the funds can be managed appropriately and will truly go to help with environmental impact, affordable housing or improvements that aid residents.
Agree! I feel like the biggest problem with this is “will it be handled correctly”. We too are frequent visitors and love the Islands. I’ve been told by locals that there is a lot of corruption in the government there. Nothing new in a lot of places for sure.I would hope something like this (if implemented) is done correctly, not only for the residents but all the visitor’s as well.