The challenge of balancing Hawaii tourism and environmental preservation now moves to boat adventure companies.
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27 thoughts on “Latest Plan To Limit Hawaii Boat Adventure Companies”
The challenge of balancing Hawaii tourism and environmental preservation now moves to boat adventure companies.
Does the Hawaiian government realize they are still part of the USA? They sure do not act it…
this is a non tourist friendly move. all of Hawaii is becoming a unfriendly, expensive and for the rich only destination. instead of highest bidders-that will put out the Native operators, just have a lottery if this goes thru. will be going to Hawaii this upcoming summer and will be the last since we can go to the French Polynesian island with better beaches, same water life, little but good restriction and friendly people.
Why doesn’t Hawaii just come out and say we don’t want tourists. I’ve been coming yearly for 30 plus years and it now seems the massaging and excessive prices, and added taxes for tourists, just send the message to stay away and don’t come back.
Hotel rates go up, the number of visitors goes down. The state raises accommodation taxes and they want to raise other fees and taxes to reduce the numbers even more. If all these reductions are successful then there won’t be enough visitors to support the excessive number of permitted businesses and they go out of business. Problem solved.
Been to maui 12 times in the last 7 years, but with the crazy rates and taxes we are done. I will go to Mexico or Costa Rica. Git married by Lucky at KBH but it is no longer affordable for the middle class. Used to be 250 a night and now is around 600 plus ridiculous fees. Hopefully your state goes broke since tourism is really the last thing you have left. Once they took out the suger cane train, we all knew what was next. Goodbye hawaii.
We have been on great boat excursions and very bad ones, one in particular that was breaking environmental and conservation rules.
I favor restrictions, and limiting contracts to reduce environmental impact.
I don’t think contracts should be awarded on the basis of money, rather they should be chosen based on past environmental record and whether the company has shown themselves to be responsible and respectful to the islands and their people and wildlife!
I believe that this a non-tourist-friendly idea. One of the reasons for coming to Hawaii is to enjoy the nature. Seems like your state government doesn’t want me to come around anymore.
More regulations, more restrictions this is what I know Hawaii to be, every sign starts with the word No! This one seems like greed driven by the DLNR. Fix the infrastructure. The harbors make a ridiculous amount of money and none of that is being put back into the infrastructure of the harbors. You need to put higher expectations on the harbors to accommodate the tourism not restrict it. Hawaii you are a glass half empty.
Mahalo, BOH, for your excellent reporting. So, if the state is successful in significantly decreasing the number of tourists coming to the islands by its lodging policies, won’t it become unnecessary to clamp down on water activities? The tourists who do manage to pay for lodging will have even less money in their budgets for diving, whale watching, fishing, kayaking, etc. How does a huge increase in resort lodging revenue (the profits of which leave the islands) benefit the local economy more than if tourist dollars are spent directly in local businesses?
Not sure Ke’e was a win. Those displaced tourists now go somewhere else with no plan. Many end up at Lumahai. No toilet, no lifeguard and it’s a dangerous beach. Meanwhile Ke’e is underutilized. Most people that torture themselves getting a permit to do the hike, not the beach. So a life guarded, safe beach with toilets is quite often deserted.
Meanwhile everyone involved in this transformation are walking around patting each other on the back. Some people are better at leading than others.
We were turned away at Kee Beach last year and told the reason for road closure and new permitting process was a large rock fell off hill and couldn’t be removed. BS. This closure was ok’d because locals wanted less traffic on “their” road. Typical HI. Hawaii is only for the very rich now. You get what you vote for!