Advertorial or news piece? This article about “Responsible Hawaii Travel” just hit us wrong.
Leave a Comment
38 thoughts on “NYTimes Is Wrong: This Isn’t Responsible Hawaii Travel”
Advertorial or news piece? This article about “Responsible Hawaii Travel” just hit us wrong.
I would question if the author or editors have ever run a farm or work traded in the same realm? The cost to live in Hawaii is high, for everyone. If a farmer can get any additional income at all, they do not just put it “in the owners pocket”. Every business that exists to support small agriculture benefits from those dollars. A few hundred more dollars to a farm means paying an employee for a few more days of work or repairing a piece of equipment to stay afloat. Many farms in Hawaii have to pay to maintain the roads to the farm. Not the state or the taxpayer. That “pocket money” benefits the community.
May I point out that the title of this piece is missing a “space” in the first two words of the title?
I really think that “responsible tourism” is paying your way, tipping where appropriate, and not being a jerk. I don’t feel like I should have to spend the two weeks of my life (per year) that aren’t spent at work, working for free so I can be viewed as “responsible”. Vacations are meant to be about leisure and pleasure and family time. Call me old fashioned I guess.
This article is beyond shameful. The cabin in the picture is at a farm made up of several rather poor farmers trying to make ends meet by supplementing their income to survive as farmers. This is what the hotel industry wants to take away from us, our last ability to participate in the sharing economy. Beat of Hawaii is a shameless mouth piece for the hotel lobby who wants to stack tourists in vertical hotels and their resorts while treating the locals as second class citizens. Tourists who support locals instead of hotels are the ones conducting responsible tourism.
Please, everyone stop trashing my prawns and read about them.
kauaishrimp.com/en/sustainability/
There’s nothing wrong with it. This article makes you sound like some kind of elitist. How many times do you need to mention the bathrooms are separate from the bedroom? Have you ever been outside of a first world country?
You all do not know what you are missing. Last year my wife and I volunteered at the fishpond in Haleiwa. We spent 3 hours or so, helping clean the pond. This was a great learning experience. We meet other volunteers from around the world and locals. We were able to visit a place that we otherwise would not have been able to. We learned about what they are trying to do to restore the fishpond and what they hope the future holds for it. This year we volunteered twice at the fishpond and loi gardens outside He’eia. We helped harvest the Loi leaves. We then cleaned other Loi areas of weeds and unwanted plants. Very muddy work. Again, able to visit a place that we drive by but never knew what was there. Great experience.
I would ask for a baby step: Leave it better than you found it. Sitting on the beach at Waikiki? Pick up those wrappers. Obey the signs to stay off sensitive trails and areas. Leave a light footprint. It would be a huge improvement just for that. And a little education about the unique culture before you go would be a plus.
I love it. Media is becoming a parent…constantly nagging. Do this, do that, and pick up after yourself. If and when I come back to Hawaii to vacation, I’m not spending a ton of money to get there only to find myself working the land. Not my job. I spend months working to be able to afford to travel. I like to stay in resorts, I don’t make a mess, I clean up after myself and I respect both the residents and the land. I’m not there to work…I’m there to play. If you want me to work, pay my way to get there and give me room and board at the resort.
“Responsible tourism is when you positively impact local communities and join them to protect environmental resources, contribute to inter-cultural understanding and help with income-earning opportunities to alleviate poverty.”
LOL!! This is just plain crazy. I am on vacation, and you want me to pay Hawaii vacation prices, work for free and create job opportunites to alleviate poverty.
I live in California, people come and vacation here all the time. We would never expect them to do all of the thigs you list here so they can be considered responsible tourists. Yes , people need to respect places, their people and culture but it not the job of the tousist to alleviate poverty. BTW Habitate for Humanity is pay to play…
Amen brother, Amen.
Although I don’t agree with what the article, I also have issue with what you say too. What is responsible tourism? It’s not littering, not vandalizing, leaving everything as you found it. It’s not the the unrealistic attitude that others have about someone else’s free time. I live in Los Angeles where we also have many visiting tourists. No one expects tourists to “work” for free, or volunteer their free time off work that they spent their money to be here. That’s the “benefit” of tourism, tourists spending money. No kore, no less. It’s what You do with that money, the extra taxes and fees already being paid that should be used to help care for your community. I mean really, pay $170 a night and work for free? That’s slavery.