68% of all Hawaii visitors used to be return guests. Here’s why thats changing.
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427 thoughts on “Why Hawaii’s Repeat Visitors Aren’t Returning – Does Anyone Care?”
68% of all Hawaii visitors used to be return guests. Here’s why thats changing.
Long time reader, but first comment. I am one of those return visitors who is being priced out of returning. We have visited over the last nine years and appreciate the beauty and spirit of the islands. I’ve visited Oahu, Hawaii, Kauai and Maui and had wonderful experiences each time. The local residents have been very welcoming and we’ve made every effort to respect and appreciate their culture and heritage. But given the current situation and costs, we won’t be returning anytime soon. Based on what our 2019 trip to Maui cost, it would easily be double that today. I’ll miss you Hawaii! I hope a solution can be found. Thank you for your excellent posts!
Hi Dee.
Thanks. It’ll be interesting to see what you find in travels to other destinations, both regarding costs and aloha. We’re Hawaii-centric, so we always appreciate hearing how it is elsewhere.
Aloha.
We canceled our trip to Kauai this past April and instead went to the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. Yes, we stayed at a resort, instead of our family-owned place on Kauai so it was more of a hotel experience than a homey one, but it was also more than $2000 less expensive than going to Hawaii would have been, even though we paid for lodging (which we wouldn’t have had to do when staying at our place on-island).
Granted, you can find kind people and rude people wherever you go, but on the whole, I felt just as embraced by the Aloha spirit in Mexico as I ever have been in Hawaii (and in some instances felt safer and less harrassed than I’ve experienced at times in Hawaii).
I love Kauai, and the Aloha spirit and will miss the islands.
The hotel prices at the Kohala coast resorts have skyrocketed over the past two years. In November 2020, we paid $400 a night with every other night free. In 2021 the same hotel was $600 a night with every fourth night free. The same room for this November is over $1000 a night with the fourth night free. After visiting at least once a year for the past 20 years it was the choice of a rental or not going at all.
We love Hawaii and have visited all four main Islands more than a dozen times over the past three decades. More restrictions and closed areas and higher prices than ever. Accommodations and rental cars are ridiculously high. Our next two trips are scheduled to be in the Caribbean and Yucatan. Aloha.
I went to the Pali look out
And saw that there is a 7 dollar and 50 cent charge for parking to go look at a view for ten minutes if that. Being a local this really had me upset.. No as a local I didn’t have to pay. But it angers me to see how the visitors are being taken advantage of, this is outrageous. Pro park is running this parking fee why??? And where dose this money go??
So not cool. This alone would turn me off of coming to visit Hawaii.
I’m surprised some of you still go there as unhappy an experience it was . I was at Kona 3 weeks ago . Wonderful vacation , great food, very kind people and would go back in a minute. Not the first issue . Yes it was pricey and I knew it was going to be . My choice to stay or go but I would never blame the locals for the prices, its everywhere.
We have been visitors to the beautiful state of Hawaii for many years. We will not be returning due to the cost and the changes noticed on our last trip. Would rather remember the wonderful times we had.
Just got back from my first trip to the Big Island. It was amazing and actually more economical than what is often portrayed.The greatest costs were restaurants.
I thought the entry fee to the state parks to be expensive.. yet understood the reason why and was happy to pay the associated costs.
All the “locals” I interacted with were extremely warm, kind, and professional. The city of Hilo was an amazing place to stay primarily because of the people.
(There was one older, local hippie guy at Magic Sands Beach who talked very loudly. He wanted tourists “taxed” even more so that he could get free stuff).
Over-tourism is a huge issue which can be solved if All stake-holders work together toward reasonable and positive solutions.
I agree with your points here but the problem is a lack of a voice for tourists in all of this. Look how easy it is to default to raising prices on items aimed squarely at tourists. The only action we have is to not travel to a destination if we (tourists) believe prices are too high and even then this choice is open to wide misinterpretation by state authorities. The state of Hawaii needs to realize that tourism is not a fixed commodity and stop maximizing the money it tries to drain from tourists pockets.
I have enjoyed Hawaii twice and would like to go again but if the taxes on Hotels and the greed of hotel’s themselves keeps up I won’t be able to and I am reading many others who won’t be able to either. In the long run that will likely decrease tourism enough that Hawaii hurts in the end. You are right, Hawaii does have to realize tourism is not a fixed commodity and will decline.
I am going back to Kauai in Sept for the third time. I’ve never found folks on that island to be unfriendly! The last time I went in 2019, I went alone and had a wonderful time, met many residents and found them all to be extremely friendly. Not just in the toursity places either. I’m talking grocery store lines, farmers markets, etc. I’ve also been to the BI which we didn’t care for as much—had a weird and sort of creepy vibe. But Kauai is my paradise! I hope it never changes.
It’s just too crowded these days. Iam done with Hawaii.
One of the tourism organizations created a report a couple of years ago, stating their desire to get the ‘higher value tourists to visit’, they stated that their goal was to have visitors each spend a higher amount, thus driving down the number of tourists but actually increasing the tourist dollars.
This ‘proposal’ was lauded by many locals during the current wars over STRs. People predictably pointed out, that limiting STRs would only exasperate hotel prices; and that most of the hotel profits goes off-island.
Sorry, but we are now seeing the fruit of these short-sighted policies.
We are a tiny little island with limited resources. We don’t make anything that can be sold or bartered; we only have Aloha and our natural beauty.
I remember that article well. My first thought was an elitist attitude and policy that will only hurt the lower and middle economic classes, both locals and tourists which is the majority. It’s basically saying we don’t want your money or you to those classes of tourists. In addition, the reduction of tourists will eliminate jobs on the island hurting again, local lower and middle economic classes. It’s a wealthy, elitist approach of not wanting to share with others hiding behind the mask of Hawaiian preservation. I’m beginning to see this more and more in the US in tourist locations since COVID.