“Stop giving tourists more reasons to stay away” Scrooge-like environment causes a downturn for Hawaii. Will the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come bring better news?
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142 thoughts on “Holiday Slump: Hawaii Struggles Unsuccessfully To Revive Tourism”
We had a great trip to hawai this October.
If hotels wanted to get tourists back they should lower their prices and get rid of that rip-off “resort fee” where they charge for previously included items like water and wifi. I don’t travel with kids so I resent, in essence, subsidizing children’s meals. The rest of the “resort fee inclusions” are just as ridiculous. If they insist on charging, the hotels should be truthful in their pricing up front.
But they won’t. They’ll keep on gouging the few tourists who will visit.
Just returned from Kailua Kona, been going there since the late 1980s, .
The gouging is now out of hand, No maintenance on state and national parks, all in a state of disrepair. As are roads.
Restaurants are outrageous, equivalent to $75 Canadian for fish and chips, no booze before tip.
Empty parking lots that want huge prices that routinely tow cars away.
But the worst part is the big companies gouging the locals living in poverty.
The ocean was wonderful but the state local leaders need need to decide whether they want tourists or not.
The people that experienced the fires, from residents to police officers, to firefighters was horrific.
Loosing family and friends in that manor is very difficult.
With all due respect, I do not understand shutting down an island for months for mourning.
I cannot recall that happening anywhere else with all the daily horrific natural disasters happening around the world.
I think the build up of animosity for years was and still continues through the avenue of the wildfires towards the tourists.
Sadly, forever people have had to relocate due to catastrophies.
What Maui is doing to the vacatin rental owners is uncalled for.
How many Maui residents could Oprah’s compound hold?
I was set to visit west Maui in mid January. Booked in Nov after reopening. Outrigger flat out cancelled my 2 week stay at the Kapalua Bay villas. No choice, no offer to help rebook at another property or another island.
Asked me to rebook after June. Was told “don’t come, you’ll be making members of our community sleep in tents on the beach, is that what you want to do?”
Have to commend Outrigger for helping in a time of crisis, but not for the way they handled it. shouldn’t have taken my reservation if they were not ready to have tourists back.
I rebooked, but now appears uncertain.
Yearly visitor to Maui for 20+ years but maybe no more.
Typically, when demand goes down (the subject of this article), prices go down – it’s the basic economic principle of supply and demand. However, the article also states, on more than one occasion, that prices are too high: “It starts, of course with simply too high costs, especially for Hawaii hotels and vacation rentals. Hawaii travel costs remain out of control and out of proportion to other destinations.” So what’s going on here? How can prices remain high if fewer people are traveling to the Islands? Just as Yogi Berra once said: “Nobody goes there any more…it’s too crowded.”
Summer 2022 i was on thebig island. Went on a tour at a private reserve. Came back to find the windows smashed and our backpacks and a duffle stolen. Police blamed us for leaving stuff in car. They said they would look into it but never heard from them. Biggest financial loss was tours we missed since we had to take care of this. During our visit had to wait 1.5 hours after our reserved time at restaurant at volcano Lodge because some locals were having party no apoligies list goes on. Felt very unwelcome during our whole visit. Btw, we did donate to Maui relief fund. This was my 15th trip to hawaii and possibly last.
I have been coming to Maui for a month since 1968. During that time, I have experienced huge changes as Maui prioritized tourism as their cash cow. In time, the Aunties were no longer sitting on the beach, making leis and transferring their culture onto visitors. I learned the spirit of Aloha, Mahalo, Ohana and other critical dimensions of the Polynesian and Hawaiian way.
In time, those spiritual people were adversely affected tourism and forced to move off the Hawaiian Islands. During those years, phenomenal islands filled with the spirit of Hawaii and its peoples vanished.
The islands were forever changed. Tourism, vacation homes, short term rentals and hotels ruined the islands forever. It has been a terrible waste.
If the Hotel owners weren’t so greedy we would have more visitors, I have a vacation rental on the big island and have seen this year been th poorest for short term rentals, I charge less than 35% for a rental than the hotels and they say we are greedy, give your head a shake, hotels and now paid parking in Kona, trying to gouge tourists for every last dime they Can squeeze, maybe the governor will read this and wake up to the real problem, hotel gouging, aloha from the somewhat depressed big island!
There’s no aloha spirit there anymore. I had a place there for 12 years. It was wonderful for the first few years. I’ll never go back there’s so many other places in the world that are so much better!
No lack of tourism Dec. 22 at Maui’s Costco. You know they’re busy when there are no shopping carta available at entrance. The aisles were gridlocked with people loading up on everything. The scene was repeated at Target, Walmart and Safeway. Even the old Queen Mall was busy. You want more tourism? Get Taylor Swift to tell her minions to visit instead of HTA wasting our tax dollars on its recently approved misguided plan that will only make things worse.
The response of the State of Hawaii to the catastrophic Lahaina fire is also catastrophic and pathetic. The Feds were even worse. As soon as the EPA cleared the area for cleanup, every other State project should have been put on hold and all resources focused on cleanup and infrastructure restoration. Get the sites cleared but back charge the insurance companies. The town should be 80% complete by now and it’s still in cleanup stage. Puerto Rico recovered faster. If tourism implodes Waikiki will be a complete homeless dump. I bet Hawaii has lost enough money over this to build back the entire city for free.
It’s just Way To Expensive to go now to any island …we went 2 times this year and that second time prices had sot up alot ..hawaii is becoming for the upper class income now
We need to deversify. Our leaders need to bring more sustainable industries to Hawaii. Stop depending on tourism 100%. Tourism is not a sustainable industry for Hawaii.
I have often thought the same thing, but struggle to think of an industry aside from tourism that would add sustainable jobs on Hawaii.
Are you aware of any industries that would add jobs for locals?
I went last Christmas and I am still feeling the pain of the price gouging we encountered. While it was magical, we cannot afford to return for a while.
The cost of hotels and rental cars are making a trip to Hawaii unaffordable. We have seen costs to our favorite Big Island hotels double or even triple since reopening after Covid. After annual or more trips the past 20 years we will have to start looking elsewhere.
Hawaii is digging its own grave with price gouging! Iam going someplace else .
I just spent 2 weeks on Kona which I have done almost every December for over 20 years. Everything much more expensive except car rental. Very very limited free parking and very costly paid parking make it impossible for businesses to thrive. Price gouging is not welcoming.
This started way before the tragic fire. The majority of the Hawaii people I encountered during my last and final visit to any of the beautiful islands, were rude and unwelcoming.
When the cost of hotel, travel and dining is more expensive than countless of other gorgeous destinations you would expect top notch service. That is not the case. Visitors are clearly not welcome. So I have begun to take my hard earned money elsewhere. Good bye Hawaii.
It is pure Greed. Hawaii will price itself out. It’s a vicious circle.
I work in the service industry and a portion of our clientele are tourists but we don’t rely on them to pay the bills. Having just gone through the past few years of arguing with the most obnoxious people from the mainland regarding their covid theories and their anti mask propaganda I am glad to know that they are staying home. The traffic is lighter and the beaches are less crowded.
Newsflash: same people were obnoxious and rude on mainland during pandemic too.
I’ve been coming to Hawaii for over 35 years, but last year will be my last. The combination of sky rocketing prices and anti-tourist rhetoric has achieved what it appears the Governor wants, No Tourism. I’ve been to Mexico 3 times in the last 18 months and have 2 Caribbean vacations set for next year. Flights/hotels/ and attitudes are much better at these places.
Glad that many are choosing other places than Hawaii have fun be safe
Totally agree. Hawaii is off our travel list. We have multiple trips planned around the globe this year, and to Cancun but have lost interest in the whole situation there.
The tides are changing. Many visitors and backpackers would rather go to southeast asia. South Koreans and the Japanese are now going to Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines where accomodations are affordable and explore neighboring islands and countries within the southeast asian catchment. One Korean Family that I recently watched on TikTok who frequented palawan said Hawaii is beautiful but Palawan is a whole different experience and affordable. Many Europeans are also flocking to these countries giving southeast asia a real boost to their economies. I myself booked a vacation for 1 month Siargao , Chang Mai and Bali all for the cost of a two week stay in Hawaii.