Complex interplay of proposals reflects the ongoing challenges in Hawaii’s visitor, economic, and housing landscapes.
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71 thoughts on “Hawaii Bad Tourist Problems On The Brink: What Have We Learned?”
Complex interplay of proposals reflects the ongoing challenges in Hawaii’s visitor, economic, and housing landscapes.
Want to see foolish politics that are steered by the hotel industry? Head to Hawaii for a great example. Aloha?? How about No-loha!
Have fun meeting your new taxes ‘locals’. The ignorance abounds like Aloha used to.
Thank you for this article! i am one w/naive ignorance W/tourism. Raised to nurture the lands, learn the history of people and places in the world, especially where I plan to travel. SO that is what I did and Hawaii was a huge long deep study. When I read rude Maui social media posts about visitors negatively impacting residents’ quality of life and all the behavioral issues, I just thought, no way. It is just the locals pushing us away. I have never witnessed it. MY sincere Apologies , as reading the above article, it appears to be world-wide. I am appalled that people do not raise children with love, having babies with no responsibilty. Please raise your kids with respect and education. Parents You Are Ruining This World!
My wife and I were married in Hawaii at Ft. Derussy and have returned 14 times since to enjoy the islands. We have been to the 4 major islands many times and like to stay for a month each time so we are not rushed. We were there this past June and July (2023) for what is likely our last trip there. We were stunned by the increase in prices at hotels, restaurants, trips and transfer fees since our last visit in 2021. It was obvious the locals did not want us there in many cases. We want to continue to travel but will likely find other places to spend our money in the future. Keep your islands, Hawaiians, and we will keep our money. Bet we’ll come out better. Aloha!
Have to agree with you 100%. This world is bigger than Hawaii.
You think locals own those hotels and other establishments??
You are exactly right. The employees at many of the hotels treat tourists horribly and then expect a tip. Ignorance is the largest issue facing locals. Not STR problems. They enjoyed the island during the pandemic while STR owners continued to pay higher taxes for the privilege of renting when told they cant. Now tourism tries to come back and they are unhapoy. Who do they think keep the local property owners taxes down? Tourisim is all they have? Don’t like it? Start planting pineapples.
Check out the bio-diesel sunflower farm (just went to their annual music festival in Wailuku), banana, coffee and chocolate plantations, lavender farm in Kula and the goat farm (taste the cheese!), the agricultural fest etc. You probably wouldn’t know about these, if you stayed at a timeshare in West Maui….and yes, we do have nurses, Dr’s, teachers etc. Not sure where you are coming from or what source of income, but tourism isn’t everything!
I don’t know how often this is noted: Hawaii supports a population of “N’ people with the economy it has….largely based on tourism. Right now, unlike a place like Singapore or many cities in the world, it has little else to export or ways to earn money. If the dollars coming in via tourism reduce, the number of people who could still earn a living here would become drastically lower, causing a large exodus of people, presumably to the mainland. One would imagine house values would reduce a lot too.. This vision may very well be desired by many, but would upset many others as well.
Not a novel concept and it has happened all over the U.S. and other places before.
Hi guys — We stay in a condo in Kihei, so I have been interested in following the Charley Young Beach Cam. Last week, alarmingly, the surf was coming into the very back of the beach, hurtling over the rocks inland. Yesterday, I saw a story on Maui TV showing incredible erosion all up and down the shore and down into Wailea. It seems very serious. Yet, where is your coverage of that issue? “Beaches” are iconic. And the loss of beaches is even more important than airline issues…
to that end,even the beach in front of the Westin timeshare is gone… I was just there and 1 wave took everything in sight. I was able to rescue my sandals, but my towel is now in the ocean and my phone got wet and is now inoperabe. One more reasonto ban plastic near the ocean. Be mindful.
I agree with the article the infrastructure needs to addressed. The road to my business on the big island took literally decades to get repaved, cars were constantly getting damaged just driving down the road. When it was finally started last year, it has taken months to complete (still not done) and what they have done, they did not do a very good job. I think it is hard for tourists to care when residents, especially the government don’t seem to.
Having just returned and planning another trip in May. I will tell you IMHO Infrastructure is the buzzword they should be heeding! Broken water mains, potholed (foxholed?) streets, overgrown medians, missing signs, broken sidewalks, electrical issues, cracked overpasses, airport repairs, major tunnels being closed on an emergency basis…
The list is pages long… Waikiki Has been cleaned up a bit, the Police Substation restroom now has an overnight security guard (seems to be anyway) and it’s obvious they had just done a sweep of the homeless folks who moved farther towards downtown but it was the fewest I’ve seen in Waiks for quite a while…
Best Regards
I understand the issue with bad tourists! I’ve seen them and hope they face the consequences for their actions, no matter where they are! When my wife and I go somewhere, we spend a day volunteering somewhere-helping the locals. We like to eat and shop at locally owned places. I also feel that you must respect the local culture. Last time we were in Hawaii we volunteered and the person in charge clearly did not like outsiders and made a number of comments. When I look at current prices for fees and parking, to name a couple things, we have cancelled our upcoming trip and will go elsewhere. Hopefully someday tourists will be welcome again, but I don’t think that will be anytime soon.
Instead of complaining about tourists, welcome and encourage them to give a few hours or a day of volunteer time to a needy project, and make them well known at every hotel, timeshare, and rental, and make it easy to sign up for, so you don’t feel like you need a course in contract law to give of your time.
As for fees, a very open and transparent accounting system must be in place so that everyone knows how much money was collected and exactly where it was spent. If this isn’t done, then there will be no trust.
Aloha, one of the best deals in Hawaii for lodging is timeshares. You can currently buy units on the resale market for way less than one week in an oceanfront resort. There are Amazing deals available.
Mahalo Randy
If only the annual maintenance fees weren’t so expensive and didn’t increase yearly.
timeshare are the worst “investment”(?) anyone can make. One of my clients couldnt sell his, so he just returnded them at a huge loss and he is not the only one.
I lived in Hawaii for 14 years, 6 years on Oahu and 8 years on Kauai. I went back for a visit in December and was sadden to see how much higher the cost was for everything, taxes and fees specifically directed at visitors, poor service because companies can’t find people that want to work, and how run down everything has gotten since Covid. It’s pretty obvious that Josh Green and the county Mayors don’t want tourists because they keep imposing more fees on visitors and taxes on visitors and owners of STRs.
Green & the Mayor will get their wish, I’ll find somewhere closer to where I currently live to spend my disposable income, and where I will feel welcome by the locals. Aloha Hawaii. 🙁
Don’t want to work? Please, stop with that. Kauai’s unemployment rate was 2.3%, lots of people are working.
The 2.3% figure you are quoting is based on unemployment claims. There are many, many people who are not collecting unemployment and are not working.
We have traveled a lot the last few years world wide, Hawaii is not the only pricey place.
In London last May I was shocked at prices! In Spain, Ireland. New Jersey and New York! Florida is bargain.
We go to Hawaii every year , 1st time 1970,honeymoon there in 2974 and have been coming ever since! Very lucky!
Where we live prices have escalated drastically! I live in the south!!!