The visitors who are walking away from Hawaii have something in common. They are not the first-timers priced out before they arrive, and they are not simply casual island travelers drifting away on a whim. They are the ones who came to Hawaii for years, sometimes decades, and built Hawaii into a central and defining part of their lives.
They saved up, planned ahead, made trade-offs, and found ways to make their trips work even when it stretched the budget. We are not talking about luxury travelers chasing novelty or status. They are middle-class families who treated Hawaii as something meaningful and worth returning to.
Fifty-six years ago today, one plane flew for the first time, becoming emblematic of Hawaii travel and permanently changing who could realistically come to Hawaii. What it unlocked was not glamour or exclusivity, but access itself, turning Hawaii affordable for middle-class families and something repeatable rather than just aspirational. That era is now largely undone, not only here in Hawaii, but this is where the loss is felt most personally by the people reading this.
What the 747 actually did for Hawaii.
Before the 747, flying to Hawaii was out of reach for most middle-class travelers. Aircraft were smaller, operating costs were perhaps double, and airfares still reflected an earlier and exclusive travel paradigm. Before then, a family vacation to the islands was seen as rare and often considered as a once-in-a-lifetime event rather than something people regularly planned around.
As we’ve written before in America’s love affair with Hawaii, jet travel turned the islands from just a dream into a place middle-class families could actually return to.
The jumbo jet changed that equation virtually overnight. With nearly 400 seats on a single flight instead of maybe 150, airlines could spread costs across more passengers. Far lower per-seat costs translated into lower fares, and those in turn changed who could come and how often they did. And this happened seemingly all at once.
Hawaii responded with unlikely speed, and Honolulu rushed to build one of the world’s first airport terminals designed specifically around the 747. The bet was made on long-haul, high-volume Hawaii travel. Soon thereafter, Hawaii committed $89 million to build the Reef Runway, nearly half a billion in today’s dollars. It was the world’s first major runway constructed entirely offshore, extending into Keehi Lagoon.
These were not cosmetic projects or short-term fixes. These were highly unusual for Hawaii: key infrastructure decisions rooted in the belief that tourism volume mattered and that middle-class visitors would become the very foundation of Hawaii travel. The state was not just accommodating a new aircraft; it was reshaping itself around what that aircraft made possible.
Hawaii’s big bet paid off. By the 1970s, Hawaii had transformed from an expensive, exclusive luxury destination into something teachers, nurses, firefighters, and retirees could realistically plan for if they saved and prepared. These visitors were no longer the wealthy, they were something different. They were loyal beyond to a fault, and they returned again and again, building traditions that lasted for more than half a century.
What’s replacing Hawaii’s golden era.
Those same travelers are now telling us, across thousands of comments, that they are done. Overall, not angrily and not dramatically, but with a kind of tired resignation that shows up repeatedly in reader comments and emails we receive. The sense is not that Hawaii changed overnight, but that it quietly became something they no longer recognize.
The travel paradigm shift did not arrive as a single shock. Resort fees became standard, parking fees followed, and new state and county taxes and fees entered the picture, whether framed as environmental responsibility or infrastructure support. Each change sounded manageable when viewed standalone.
Stacked together, however, the math just stopped working. A weeklong stay in Hawaii can now easily carry $700 or more just in mandatory charges beyond the eye-popping room rate, and before sky-high airfare, rental cars, or food are even considered. Nightly resort fees of little value and 19% taxes get applied to everything, including the fees themselves.
Then came the tragic fires and the messaging. Following the return of mass tourism after Covid and the Lahaina fire, Hawaii began openly signaling that indeed it was not for everyone. It started leaning hard into luxury positioning and talking about fewer visitors spending more. That messaging continues to this day. Vacation rental bans threaten to remove the same affordable options repeat travelers relied on for decades to keep costs within reach, especially for families who stayed longer and returned frequently.
We hear it constantly from readers. One longtime visitor wrote, “We have been coming to Hawaii since the early 1980s and raised our kids on those trips. This year will be our last because it is not one thing, it is everything stacked together.” Another said, “We still love Hawaii, but loving it is no longer enough to justify the cost.”
They are not strangers to the islands at all. They are the travelers the 747 and what followed brought to Hawaii in the first place, the same longtime visitors who commented by the hundreds in Maui visitors are quietly saying it: We’re not coming back. Rising costs and mounting friction finally pushed trips they once took for granted out of reach.
This isn’t just a Hawaii problem.
We travel widely to understand and make sense of what is happening here in the islands. Seeing other destinations firsthand is the only way to contextualize Hawaii honestly, rather than treating it as an isolated case. What we are seeing elsewhere makes tourism patterns hard to ignore.
Across the globe, the democratization of travel is reversing. Destinations that also once symbolized aspiration for middle-class travelers are now layering fees, friction, and access restrictions on top of base prices that have rapidly escalated since Covid. Tourism is no longer limited by scarcity, but instead by design.
Hawaii is not doing something unique. It is participating in, and perhaps leading, a global shift toward fewer visitors spending more, with travel complexity replacing simplicity and exclusivity replacing availability. The leisure travel model built on volume and accessibility is quickly being unwound almost everywhere. The only destinations where this hasn’t happened yet are those that haven’t reached the tourism thresholds where the brakes start to get applied. They are becoming fewer, and soon they too will follow.
But this is Beat of Hawaii, not Beat of Everywhere. Our readers feel this shift here because Hawaii is where they built their lifelong memories and routines, and that is where this loss lands squarely.
The question that lingers.
Hawaii once spent a fortune building a runway, literally offshore, for a plane that purely symbolized accessible travel. An entire visitor infrastructure was constructed from the ground up around the very idea that middle-class visitors mattered the most, and that volume was what sustained the system. That premise shaped the Hawaii that visitors came to know.
Today, officials talk openly about quality over quantity without fully acknowledging or perhaps even caring about what that shift means for those travelers who helped built this industry. The economics have changed globally, but the emotional disconnect is most visible here in Hawaii, where loyalty once counted for something, perhaps everything.
What the 747 made possible is fading faster than the plane itself did. Not just in Hawaii.
The visitors walking away already understand all of this at some level. They are not speculating or guessing, because they lived through the half-century the 747 defined, and they are watching it end.
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“Those same travelers are now telling us, across thousands of comments, that they are done.”
could not be more true. i’ve been lucky enough to live in waikiki for 34 years. my retired parents came to visit a couple times over the years and my younger sister, a second grade teacher and her high school football coach husband, got to bring her family once. they loved it and were saving up to come again years later when they saved enough. they all no longer can afford to, or want to come back because of the ridiculous cost. they have plenty of other, cheaper options.
Great synopsis of the 747 era. I worked the bargain $99. and $109 World Airways economy fare routes as a crew new -hire from California to Honolulu for a time. The planes were always packed. Happy families onboard, many had never flown before or parent only flew for work. ( Hawai’i is my birthplace/ ‘āina hānau). What I am shocked at every time I try to plan a trip home to Hawai’i from the West Coast where I live, is exactly the same as outlined in the article; fees on top of fees and price of accommodations. We no longer have a family home there so go through the same experience and money pressures as visitors. Have not been home since pre-Covid! Aue.
We love Maui but to put it simply and succinctly, I will say the same thing about our annual visits to Hawaii that I have said about skiing. “ When the pain exceeds the pleasure, it’s time to give it up !”
58 years old, and been coming to and spending in Hawaii for 30 years. No more. The nickle and diming is now $50 every time I turn around. I can go to the Maldives or Tahiti for the same or less money
According to Google, average room rates in Tahiti are $400-500 per night.
The Maldives average is $1147 per night. Luxury resorts are $3000 or more in either place.
Air travel is substantially more expensive than to Hawaii and the travel time is at least double. I haven’t visited the Maldives, but in Tahiti, food was much higher than in Hawaii. Car rentals are also more expensive, and a passport is required to visit.
Research suggests that Hawaii is still a better value. If you are traveling with kids, 5+ extra hours on a plane can be horrendous.
Perhaps this has been posed before but I haven’t seen it. When are the people whose families have lived in Hawaii for generations going to take responsibility themselves for their current situation? The tourist industry developed not only because Hawaii is beautiful but it developed because of greed and want. The greed was from the developers for obvious reasons but also because the government agencies involved wanted the tax monies and the people wanted the jobs. And who staffed these agencies were the grand and great grandparents of a lot of the people who live there today. I can’t blame the staffers and workers for wanting to provide for their families but instead of protesting tourism and housing accept the fact that your grand and great grandparents were an important part of the reason why things are the way they are today. If you can accept that fact and take ownership of the issues maybe you would have a better approach to todays challenges.
I am not sure why you would put blame on the grandparents of hotel employees? Many of them were working in sugar fields, pineapple fields and some of them were immigrants (like the rest of the US). Not sure why you would blame mass tourism on them? Sure, some have accepted jobs in resorts because the sugar industry was shut down a few years ago …Based on 2019-2023 data, an average of 46,786 Native Hawaiians were employed annually in Hawaii’s tourism sector, representing just over 20% of the industry’s total workforce. Between 2015 an 2019, it was 36.5% ..I am happy that more people get back into the agricultural field. We need more food that is not imported from the mainland or other countries.
Your post is called victim blaming.
Hawaiian people played no role in the overwhelming onslaught of tourists. Virtually all of it was created by wealthy mainland and Japanese investors, coupled with improved air transportation.
The fact that poor locals became the housekeepers and groundskeepers certainly doesn’t indicate that they were complicit in the influx. They were helpless to stop it.
The description of the Hawaii visitors was my family. Our first trip was in 1994 and we returned at least every other year and a few times every year. Our last trip was in 2017. Then covid came and we have not come back. Now retired and on a fixed income so we have been priced out. We had a timeshare on Kauai which we gave to our daughter and her husband. I miss it so much. It was a second home for more than 20 years. I feel sad when reading of the changes. Anyone that did not have the opportunity of discovering Hawaii before covid, missed a wonderful experience.
So true. I feel like this about west side of Maui. Now it’s too expensive but I will forever hold my memories . Actually lived in Lahaina during my prime. 1985-1989. What a beauty she was. I was 22 and explored every inch. Then was able to show my 20 ish yr old daughter Maui over 20 yrs later. Still gorgeous, but different. Now gone. Not sure where to explore next.
First went in 1978, just returned from 9th trip last week. Went in 2019, so many blue tents, street people, beggars, I thought I was in a third world country. It has been cleaned up, but very expensive. So much so, and the fact I am old, I doubt I will go again.
This is why our Hawaii trips slowly became less frequent without us really ever deciding to stop. It wasn’t any one thing. Not even cost. It was everything together that wrecked the joy we used to feel.
Well said. Many of us can definitely relate to that sentiment.
Same here. We have been in Hawaii at least once if not twice a year going back into the 80’s except 2 years. We didn’t go in 2025 and aren’t going this year. It isn’t the same. And as cutting out Maui trips because Lahaina burned up due to carelessness of some people and the ridiculous government they have. There are other places to go that seem to want your business more and don’t nickle and dime you to death and do it with bad attitudes.
We’re not wealthy travelers. We’re planners. That used to work for Hawaii. Now it feels like planning just reveals how many extra costs are waiting. We still hope to be back when we can make it work.
Things changed, and not everyone can follow where it’s been going. That’s where we stand. More mainland trips, and selective overseas ones seem like where we are now heading.
We raised our kids on Hawaii trips. They’re grown now, and we hoped to keep the tradition going with grandkids. We priced it out and decided against it for the first time ever but remain undecided about future trips.
I don’t think it has quite struck home yet how many longtime visitors are just opting out. It’s not dramatic. It’s just a long slow fade and there will be consequences.
Not upset, just over it. We didn’t leave Hawaii angrily. We just stopped going after once or twice a year for decades. It became overly complicated, too expensive, and stressful in ways it never used to be.
In the early 80s I flew a 747 in a high density seating (Sardine Capacity) of around 500. We charged $99 each way. But the Hawaii Express Airlines, “The Big Pineapple” went bankrupt with almost 100% load factor! Meaning every seat was sold on every flight. I actually felt rather guilty dumping thousands of cheap bargain hunting vacationers from SoCal into the serene and clean surroundings of the islands. I admire the people of Hawaii not wanting to destroy their way of life to cater to the tourists from all over the world. I agree with quality over quantity and not turning Honolulu into another Las Vegas!
Call me one of those middle-class repeat visitors who started coming on the big planes. Not rich, not struggling, just what used to be normal. We finally booked something else this year because the Hawaii costs didn’t make sense anymore.
Hawaii was our place for anniversaries and big family milestones forever. We still love it, and plan to continue returning, but love doesn’t pay resort fees and parking fees that didn’t exist before, among other things.
We’ve been coming since the late 1970s when we came in the back of a Pan Am 747. Back then it took planning, but it felt possible. Now it feels like every part of the trip is designed to squeeze a little more out of you, and at some point you stop asking how to make it work.
Very well said. I never made that connection before although I’ve been coming to the islands since seven years old in the late 1950s. This included on my dad’s last flight at age 59 and 364 days before mandatory FAA retirement the next day with family members onboard on the top level of The Queen of the Skies. Visiting was so easy and peaceful for many years until Covid, etc. Sad to lose it.
I was one of the people who benefitted from the arrival of the Boeing 747. In 1972 when I graduated from high school, a group of us visited Waikiki for a week. We bought a package that included flights on Continental Airlines, Pacific Beach Hotel, lei greeting, transportation from/to the airport, a Circle Island bus tour, boat trip to Pearl Harbor, and some meals for $236 pp. What an amazing experience and began my love for Hawaii. The following summer I came back for a month, then returned a total of 17 times. In 2014, I retired and moved to Maui. I haven’t regretted it once in 11 years here.
This place is magical, and I love every day here. Over the past 7 years, my 3 grandsons have come to live with me in my oceanfront condo in West Maui.
Life is great, albeit a bit crowded!
Aloha Alex! I live on Maui, too! Took me about 25 years to make it here, but it’s home now ….maybe we’ll meet one of these days. Maui nō ka ʻoi
Excellent article BOH. Very thoughtful and insightful. Those of us who have been coming to Hawaii for decades can reflect on your spot on analysis. Lots in this article to “chew” on.
Mahalo Nui
Loyalty? Yes, the 747 generation of travelers was loyal, maybe to a fault. For decades they kept coming no matter the mounting frictions described here, likely out of habit. But at some point friction burns and loyalty (or habit) is tested. Using ourselves as an example, we were twice yearly visitors to the islands and after a 2-year hiatus are planning just annual visits around shoulder seasons, better room rates, social car rentals and other cost softening measures. Loyalty is no longer in the equation. We go when we can, and take what we can get. It sounds cold, but past trips our loyalty had us volunteering on Maui that left us (due to current sentiments) unfulfilled. They don’t want us. Younger generations learned about evaporating loyalty long before our epiphany. Hawaii as we knew it was good while it lasted. Change is inevitable. Time to adapt.
Relying on fewer tourists to spend more while creating less impact on resources sounds like a good idea in theory, but with fewer middle class visitors, I anticipate the smaller locally owned shops and restaurants will be hurting for enough foot traffic to stay in business as the wealthier travelers will likely gravitate towards more upscale offerings, giving large offshore corporations another win.
Aloha, good recap article. As a Honolulu resident of more than 30 years with extensive foreign travel, many locales are buying into the easy money of tourism. Most tourists worldwide already know and expect cheezy ripoffs but Hawaii takes this to a new low.
What is real is a great place with great people in a shabby, 2nd rate American city. Easy tourist $ and resistance to change and growth forces kids to leave home for real opportunities becides carrying luggage or mixing drinks.
Sad commentary for what once was a wonderful home.
Locals have voted our tourism issues into office. Elections have consequences. We have a governor that believes climate change is the problem and implements costly solutions to a non issue to most of our state. We have a mayor that doesn’t understand crosswalks need to be painted on major streets and a police department that needs a major overhaul.
One Party Rule, Hawaii as a State has it’s own elected Officials who set the table, and from the mid-1980’s when we started coming over for Business and Pleasure, 95 Trips of 7-10 days, the Japanese slowed their travel to Hawaii by the mid-late 1990’s, and the Yokohama-Okadaya’s began to close, at one point 13 in Waikiki! This cannot be blamed on Presidents, World Economies, these are the same people that can’t find the $100’sM given to Lahaina, the same people Government people that refused water to Lahaina when the fires began, and the Governor was out of State as well as the Maui Fire Chief! It’s sad to see, so many great friends over the years at both the Moana and Hyatt, still remember initially at the Moana, there were 3 generations of Valet Parker’s named Paul, they are all gone, Jan from the Concierge Desk, Gloria from the Towel Station, Craig from the Banyon Tree Bar. It is sad, but all self-inflicted!
Something else was happening in the 70s 80s – sugar plantations and sugar mills were closing. From the early 1900s, imported labor (Japanese, Chinese, Filipino and Portuguese) staffed the sugar industry. Generations of these families worked the fields and the mills. And just as the sugar industry was disappearing and leaving workers unemployed, the hospitality industry took off in Hawaii. These workers provided an immediate labor supply. The wide body is only part of the
Aloha,
Great article gents. I get emails from companies that I have done business with, and the latest was from a Maui resort that had availability. The prices (for the same suite) ranged from $3500 per night to $7500 per night, date dependent, with an “outcleaning” charge of $995. (plus fees, taxes and ripoffs). I am not in that league, so I was actually rather annoyed by it all. All I could think was “Man overboard!”.
Mahalo
Great article. Very informative but also very eye opening. My 1st trip to the islands was in 1996. Been back 15 times more. With each trip, I have seen the Aloha Spirit go from Welcome to ” How much can we get from you” Even walking on a beach costs money in some locations. I wouldn’t mind paying a one time tourism fee if I could see improvement in infrastructure like bathrooms, trash pickup etc. Quality over quantity is Not going to change those things. You have the money. I, along with millions, have given you the money to keep the islands in pristine condition. But it has been used to line the pockets of government officials or just plain wasted on frivolous ideas. It all goes back to the people elected.Are there any honest, caring people that love the islands and want to see them enjoyed by those living there and visitors alike.?
If there are…..VOTE out the ones that are greedy and elect new ones that remember that it was us; the middle-class, that came on that 1st 747..
Wow, just learned more about that reef runway…didn’t know it was sort of built for the Boeing 747! I’m a fairly recent traveler to Hawaii, and the biggest planes I’ve flown on to and from Honolulu are the Boeing 787-9 and the Boeing 777-200. (Missed out on the 747 era. 🫤)
I believe HNL also built a double decker gate for the A380. I’ve never heard any airline flew one here with passengers. Ultimately that bet didn’t pay off, but we can’t fault them for planning for the possibility of that plane landing here. That kind of forward-thinking decision making is as surprising now for Hawaii as it probably was then.
The thought of the wide bodies and Hawaiian Airlines disappearing from the west coast is heartbreaking. It was the beginning of the great experience. Spacious airplanes, Hawaiian music and native Hawaiian flight attendants made you feel like you were already in Hawaii. Now you might as well be flying to Chicago. The aura that once existed is now gone. Anyone who didn’t get to experience what once was an amazing beginning to their Hawaii vacation has truly missed out.