122 thoughts on “Does Hawaii Want Tourists or Not? It’s Fickle.”
Gary G.
To paint tourist as unwanted and not welcome, is one point of view, at times, justified. While on the other hand we have been spending our money on abandoned vehicles and there accompanying pollution that this creates. It wasn’t a “tourist” that destroyed and burn an abandoned vehicle. To point a finger at a tourist alone, as a problem, and look the other way when someone abandons and pollutes on “their/our islands”, well, there is a tad bit of “do what I say, not what I do” attitude. I do not have issue with chiding/or fining the tourist that climbs a fence to get to Queen’s Bath, then requiring our help to save their stupid… But please let us all recognize that we must first start to recognize our local attitudes first.
They just passed a law no vacation rentals less then 90 days. How can we expect family’s to travel here and stay in a hotel room. No more families how sad….to see. All that GEt and Tat tax will be gone. Where’s the Aloha in this?
How much Hawaiian blood does Lily Hiʻilani Okimura have? Any full blood Hawaiians in her family.
Seems a little young to know what it is and was like growing up in Hawaii in the 50s
Would like to know since she’s speaking for me 97% DNA Hawaiian
Much of the bad behavior Ms. Okimura attributes to visitors is also the same bad behavior of residents.
Just imagine Hawaii without tourists or with far fewer tourists. Many residents will leave for the mainland to make a living. Is that what the anti-tourists want?
Look, all of us can work on our behavior, at home and while on vacation or away from home on business. That includes tourists everywhere and locals everywhere.
It is my opinion that Lily is a negative Nellie! She has no business telling the same people that make Hawaii rich off of them, that they are not welcome. It matters not, how many tic tok followers she has. She is wrong and very rude to say that! My wife and I spent our Honeymoon in Hawaii. We took in 3 of the Islands and had a great time. We were respectful of people and the surroundings wherever we went. Bad people are the minority. Pretty much everyone we met was kind, considerate and caring about the environment.
(Cont. Below)
(Cont. from above)
Those people that are Rude, ignorant and destructive, are in the super minority. We never witnessed any of those behaviors while we were there. Hawaii is a beautiful place and I can assure you, we will be back and will not let any negative Lilly’s dissuade us from doing so.
Mahalo!
Daily,I encounter beautiful ,friendly ,appreciative visitors on my Kauai Lagoons walk. – I felt sad reading this post,sad for the division
I am both a resident and a traveler,so I feel I experience both worlds. -I wonder if Lilly Travels outside of Hawaii?
Globally,visitor destinations experience the same challenges
—I have been blessed to experience kindness when I travel,in Italy,through their small towns,,,walking under their daily laundry-a foreigner -/-my hope is that we in Hawaii will share this kindness to other travelers -we are in a unique position to do so -thank you
As a Southern California resident, I know what it means to go to the beach and find the parking lot overrun with cars and the beach overrun with people and dogs. However, that unfortunately nothing new but it does keep our Santa Barbara “green” and the restaurants, hotels and the tourism industry prosperous. If you are in a complaining mood, wouldn’t your bankrupting experience during Covid cause you to thing twice? Jim E
My wife and I returned from a 10 day vacation on Kaua’i in April where we have visited many many times. What I can say is that things are not like they were, Rental Cars are priced out of sight, perks that were being given to returning guest at rental units were canceled, almost all activities must be booked weeks in advance, we weren’t able to secure one during our stay, many of the restaurants are either closed or operating on limited hours, a few very popular ones we found were closed during the dinner hours. The $5 mai tai’s during Happy Hour went up at some places to $13 plus the special priced appetizers were no longer.
What we experienced was just not the same, you can still enjoy yourselves but be prepared for the difference.
Based on a lot of social media posts, I was concerned about our 4-week Big Island stay in March/April. I have learned as much ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi as I could on Duolingo, and we did stay with friends and hang out with locals, but we are still obviously tourists. Thankfully, we never felt unwelcome in that entire time. We experienced as much aloha as ever. It was great.
To paint tourist as unwanted and not welcome, is one point of view, at times, justified. While on the other hand we have been spending our money on abandoned vehicles and there accompanying pollution that this creates. It wasn’t a “tourist” that destroyed and burn an abandoned vehicle. To point a finger at a tourist alone, as a problem, and look the other way when someone abandons and pollutes on “their/our islands”, well, there is a tad bit of “do what I say, not what I do” attitude. I do not have issue with chiding/or fining the tourist that climbs a fence to get to Queen’s Bath, then requiring our help to save their stupid… But please let us all recognize that we must first start to recognize our local attitudes first.
They just passed a law no vacation rentals less then 90 days. How can we expect family’s to travel here and stay in a hotel room. No more families how sad….to see. All that GEt and Tat tax will be gone. Where’s the Aloha in this?
How much Hawaiian blood does Lily Hiʻilani Okimura have? Any full blood Hawaiians in her family.
Seems a little young to know what it is and was like growing up in Hawaii in the 50s
Would like to know since she’s speaking for me 97% DNA Hawaiian
Much of the bad behavior Ms. Okimura attributes to visitors is also the same bad behavior of residents.
Just imagine Hawaii without tourists or with far fewer tourists. Many residents will leave for the mainland to make a living. Is that what the anti-tourists want?
Look, all of us can work on our behavior, at home and while on vacation or away from home on business. That includes tourists everywhere and locals everywhere.
It is my opinion that Lily is a negative Nellie! She has no business telling the same people that make Hawaii rich off of them, that they are not welcome. It matters not, how many tic tok followers she has. She is wrong and very rude to say that! My wife and I spent our Honeymoon in Hawaii. We took in 3 of the Islands and had a great time. We were respectful of people and the surroundings wherever we went. Bad people are the minority. Pretty much everyone we met was kind, considerate and caring about the environment.
(Cont. Below)
(Cont. from above)
Those people that are Rude, ignorant and destructive, are in the super minority. We never witnessed any of those behaviors while we were there. Hawaii is a beautiful place and I can assure you, we will be back and will not let any negative Lilly’s dissuade us from doing so.
Mahalo!
Daily,I encounter beautiful ,friendly ,appreciative visitors on my Kauai Lagoons walk. – I felt sad reading this post,sad for the division
I am both a resident and a traveler,so I feel I experience both worlds. -I wonder if Lilly Travels outside of Hawaii?
Globally,visitor destinations experience the same challenges
—I have been blessed to experience kindness when I travel,in Italy,through their small towns,,,walking under their daily laundry-a foreigner -/-my hope is that we in Hawaii will share this kindness to other travelers -we are in a unique position to do so -thank you
As a Southern California resident, I know what it means to go to the beach and find the parking lot overrun with cars and the beach overrun with people and dogs. However, that unfortunately nothing new but it does keep our Santa Barbara “green” and the restaurants, hotels and the tourism industry prosperous. If you are in a complaining mood, wouldn’t your bankrupting experience during Covid cause you to thing twice? Jim E
My wife and I returned from a 10 day vacation on Kaua’i in April where we have visited many many times. What I can say is that things are not like they were, Rental Cars are priced out of sight, perks that were being given to returning guest at rental units were canceled, almost all activities must be booked weeks in advance, we weren’t able to secure one during our stay, many of the restaurants are either closed or operating on limited hours, a few very popular ones we found were closed during the dinner hours. The $5 mai tai’s during Happy Hour went up at some places to $13 plus the special priced appetizers were no longer.
What we experienced was just not the same, you can still enjoy yourselves but be prepared for the difference.
Based on a lot of social media posts, I was concerned about our 4-week Big Island stay in March/April. I have learned as much ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi as I could on Duolingo, and we did stay with friends and hang out with locals, but we are still obviously tourists. Thankfully, we never felt unwelcome in that entire time. We experienced as much aloha as ever. It was great.