Beat of Hawaii - Hawai`i Travel News

Hawaii Travel Future Uncertain: Continuing Declines + Other Concerns

As predicted, the most recent month tracked by the state’s Hawaii Tourism Authority, revealed yesterday, continued to confirm a downhill tourism slide compared with last year. We first reported on that as far back as last fall. Is this good or bad? Read on for our analysis of what’s happening.

While Hawaii hotel occupancy, one important measure of tourism’s health, was still a relatively robust 73%, down a modest 1% compared with last year, prices are still going in the wrong direction, up 1.5%. More interesting, however, is that this decline came after an additional occupancy slide of 2% the prior month amid weakness that continues to grow. These follow a line of successes Hawaii has achieved in travel recovery following Covid.

Hawaii’s marketing mess complicates matters.

The ongoing problems at HTA and its marketing partners are confusing and complicated, making delivering any concise tourism message difficult. Last week it was announced that the head of HTA will be departing, whether of his own volition or that of the state (HTA). Hawaii’s marketing issues interfere with the state’s ability to compete domestically and internationally for visitors. John De Fries, who has been head of HTA for the past three years, said only that he will not seek to extend his contract that ends this summer. His imminent departure follows a very long line of ongoing planned and unexpected departures at HTA.

Hawaii cozies up to fewer visitors who are spending more.

What’s happening is that Hawaii tourism, which has been stating its desire to reduce travel, is paying off: Fewer visitors, but they are paying more. That’s true even though it means lower occupancy, among other things. This is consistent, however, with HTA plans. The State Legislature has been on the brink of scrapping the HTA altogether. If that were to happen, these roles and responsibilities would be assumed by the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism. Rep Quinlan’s plan is that the focus there would be exclusively on destination management rather than destination marketing.

Hawaii accommodation rates continue to climb, but more slowly.

While room rates have continued to climb, that trend has begun to slow at last. Hawaii accommodation rates are outrageous, as we’ve pointed out multiple times. We are still awaiting more data points in that regard for May, but as we last mentioned, there was a reported 10% drop in west coast arrivals in April. Hawaii vacation rentals, another important measure, will also be reported separately by the state. Hawaii lawmakers are looking at entirely eliminating the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

Fewer airline seats for now, but are more coming?

HTA’s partner HVCB said that in May, there were not as many Hawaii airline seats. They indicated that the capacity for all of 2023 is down over 3% compared with 2022. However, reliable source OAG/Cirium says that Hawaii airline seats will be up 6% compared with 2019, at least for July through September. We’ll await more clarification on these data points.

Data doesn’t reflect the true increase in Hawaii visitor costs.

The state says that so far this year, accommodations are costing, on average, 35% more than before Covid (2019). That is simply nonsense, as any Hawaii visitor can confirm. Instead, in total real numbers, including all fees and taxes, hotels and vacation rentals have increased by multiples. We recently mentioned an upcoming editors’ trip to a Kapolei Oahu business meeting, where the least expensive hotel, the Hampton Inn, including all taxes and fees, was more than $500 per night! No one likes being gouged, be it visitors or residents.

In Honolulu, the state says that rates in May were up 7.5% compared with 2022, with just slightly higher occupancy (2.5%) to a still healthy 78.3%. Kauai’s room rates went up another 8.2% compared with last year, with a slide in occupancy to a not-as-healthy 74.2%. The Big Island’s room rate, on the other hand, was down 3.1%, while occupancy was down 7% to just 66.9%. Maui saw its rates decline to an average of $539 (before approx. 18% taxes and various other fees), which was down 1.8% on 4.1% less traffic than last year.

West Coast and return visitors dropping.

The most important market for Hawaii travel is where the trouble is most apparent. In the last month for which we have complete details (April), arrivals from the West Coast declined 10% compared with last year. That as visitors choose destinations other than Hawaii.

Visitors still have an outsized impact on island infrastructure

The strain of tourism remains palpable still, in spite of the thus far modest declines. That is evident on the roads, at beaches, and everywhere else. US visitor arrivals for the remainder of the year and visitor spending are difficult to predict.

Still waiting for better value in Hawaii travel!

We have previously said that eventually, less demand will lead to better value in Hawaii travel. For now, the industry is happy to see fewer visitors spending more. But there is a point at which you can’t squeeze more out of everyone, and that point has arrived, in our opinion.

This will ultimately lead to Hawaii deals. Editor Jeff previously said, “We see significant softening in demand ahead this summer, which could bring hotel and rental car prices back down while airfares waver or continues to rise.” That is still true.

We’ve seen this coming for the past six months.

The warning signs about less demand for Hawaii travel bookings began during the December 2022 holiday season. There was an unexpected lack of Hawaii travel performance during a time of year that has always been the best performing.

There remains a glimmer of hope for late summer bookings, although that likelihood is becoming less and less. We reported last month that “Advance bookings for traditionally stellar July are currently off by up to one-third.”

We have recently been able to take advantage of some lower-priced Honolulu accommodation offers even in July. For example, a 3* Diamond Head location for $300 (including all taxes and fees). That is an unexpected improvement in price.

As you know, two Beat of Hawaii editors were in Europe last month. And there are more trips planned for this summer. We mention that because values in Europe, as confirmed by your comments, are much better overall than in Hawaii. That is across the board, including accommodations, car rentals, and restaurants, among other things. Airfare, well, not so much!

Airlines try to forecast the demand for Hawaii travel.

We confirm what HVCB previously said. That is, “A recent trend toward travelers booking rental cars and hotel rooms before airlines also has made it harder for airlines to forecast traveler demand.”

What is the best strategy for Hawaii visitors at this time?

As we have said before: “The current environment speaks to the benefits of last-minute bookings as yielding the best results. You can be sure that this isn’t what airlines, hotels, and car rentals want us to say. But that is clearly the situation at hand. On the other hand, this approach can also backfire if you wait too long. Those with more flexible travel plans will benefit most.”

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42 thoughts on “Hawaii Travel Future Uncertain: Continuing Declines + Other Concerns”

It’s been 12 years since my last trip to Maui. I would love to go back but the hotel/rental rates + extra fees are ridiculous. Price gouging is the real cause of the drastic decline in visitors. A one week stay isn’t worth 3 months of mortgage payments.

Try a short-term rental, in a resort area like Wailea, so that you don’t take housing away from locals and the displaced. One-third the price of hotel for double the space, especially right now and for the foreseeable future. You can actually go to Maui pretty reasonably if you know where to look. I know because I’m here.

Oahu infrastructure is dying. Hotel 400 plus insane taxes dinner 250 lunch 186 breakfast 2 smoothies 32.00. Collapse of Waikiki beach because they won’t back fill sand. Flights: 800 r/t car 946 for 10 days, hotel parking 500 for 10 days. Unfortunately, I have family on islands. Hawaii is going to get the California treatment. People are going to stop coming here anymore. Crime on Waikiki is bad too. I can go elsewhere and get an equivalent experience. The locals appreciate the visitors who inject money into the economy. Years and years of horrific mismanagement and corruption on State and local levels will finish off the Hawaiian economy.

I totally get the farmers markets are mostly frequented by residents, in some areas, maybe not Princeville! I don’t go to the market to pay less. We found prices are the same for the same item as in stores. I go to get better quality vegetables and fruit. It isn’t any one thing alone. It’s the accumulation of price, airfare, reservations, car rental, and convenience to get here from the east coast. We have to ask ourselves if the benefit is worth the trouble? For us, our conversation now is what do other places have to offer that we would never have considered in the past, because Kauai was our place to relax and surround ourselves in the beauty the island offers. Sadly, for the first time we have no time or plans to return.

We are in Kauai now. We’ve been coming here since 2004. We have not seen traffic like we are use to seeing. At Waimea Lookout parking was $10 plus it’s $5 a person. On a Sunday we got a parking spot right away. At the farmers market we paid $3 for a bunch of radishes, $5 for a bell pepper, $3 for a cucumber. At JoJo’s in Hanalei it’s $7.50 for a shave ice. We walked right in and sat down at our favorite fist stop Hamuras Saimin where a regular Special Bowl is now $10.50, a scoop of Lapperts is $7.50. Hawaii will get what it’s hoping for, less visitors. They should be careful what they wish for. After this we’re taking a break from Hawaii. We feel gouged. So many long time favorites have closed too. Very sad!

You may not realize that the farmers markets are largely frequented by residents. Check the prices at supermarkets if you think that $3 is too much for locally grown produce. It’s actually reasonable. And the farmers aren’t exactly getting rich at those prices. Keep in mind that all of their expenses are very high.

On Memorial Day we visited Akaka Falls and were surprised at the $10 parking fee plus $5 a person. My husband is a Veteran and we got free parking and free access saving us $35 to visit a waterfall we enjoy but we’ve already gone to several times over the years. If we had to pay $35 I’m not sure we would have stayed to view the waterfall. We also felt price gouged and skipped a couple local interests we would have liked to visit but felt the price was too much. $3 for a cucumber and $5 for a bell pepper? The fact that everything is so expensive will stop some people from visiting–or at least. not visiting as long or as often.

I love visiting Kauai. However, I keep reading articles about limiting visitors to beaches such as Tunnels and having ti make reservations months ahead. Also, so many articles about how the locals don’t want us there. There was one article with a huge list of places the locals don’t want us to go, and it was practically every bite able beach and landmark. I do not feel welcome.

All of this is good for our islands.. but sucks for us that have been displaced and living away from our home. There is no discounts for born and raised Hawaiians to go home and visit.

I agree….I had to leave my home because I could not afford to live there any longer. Does that mean former kama’aina are not welcome either? Where’s the aloha?

I booked our accommodations on the BI for next year three months ago. We will be staying for 10 weeks. Anyway, used the same management company but split our stay between two units, based upon availability. One of the units is currently for sale and under contract. Concerned that the new owner might not be willing to honor our reservation, I cancelled our reservation and extended our stay on the other unit for the entire 10 weeks. I was then offered a 10% discount–I am interpreting this as a “softening” of rates. The management company also refunded my deposit on the 1st unit in full.

I honestly think a lot of the issue is the state cracking down on Airbnb’s and VRBO units. They made it more affordable for the regular family. Who can afford $300 plus per night is a hotel, eating out constantly and the other expenses associated. Atleast the state should start re issuing TVU’s to owners that want to do short term rentals.

Pat G: Interesting. We would always rent a place on Maui at a low rise oceanfront development. We have been going there since 1995. A three br OF depending on the unit usually ran $400 – $500 a day – once Covid hit the price has skyrocketed to as much as $1000 – $1500/day. Better than a hotel if you figure 3 br, but honestly that is a huge increase and not affordable.

I agree – I know I could never afford that. It is still half the price of 3 rooms in the hotels around there, though, plus you get a full kitchen, large lanai, etc.

About your oceanfront condo….If you go one block away from the water on Maui, you can get beautiful, large 2-bedroom condos with ocean views for $350 to $600 depending on the season. That’s a no brainer, IMO.

PAT G Agreed, but I come to see the Ocean. I live in San Diego and can drive to it, but when I’m on Maui I want to see, hear and smell it every minute.

How about these:

airbnb.com/rooms/23482500?source_impression_id=p3_1687544654_fWwUKPA%2FdB4SHOAq

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Maui Recovery

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On August 8, 2023, wildfires resulted in the devastating loss of loved ones, homes, cultural and historical sites, and businesses in Lahaina, located in West Maui. We extend our deepest condolences and heartfelt aloha to all those who have been affected by this tragedy. We also urge visitors throughout Hawai‘i to be especially mindful and respectful in our island home as our community continues through this extremely difficult time.   The Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority is continuously coordinating efforts with federal, state and county emergency management officials, as well as our community partners, visitor industry and Global Marketing Team. We are also providing updates to our travel partners — airlines, accommodations, ground transportation companies, activity providers, travel agents, and wholesalers, as well as to local, national and international media — to ensure the public is kept informed.

While Lahaina itself will remain fully closed to the public until further notice out of respect to the town’s residents, West Maui accommodations have reopened to visitors.

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February 15, 2024

Mākaukau Maui - We Are Ready

With a deep commitment to our community’s well-being, West Maui is ready to return a comforting sense of stability to the lives of its residents. Reopening our doors is one step towards reducing the uncertainties that weigh on our shoulders. It also ensures our community has the jobs and financial opportunities to thrive. On the horizon is a new day. As one, Maui is moving forward – hopeful and optimistic that it can share its culture with those beyond our shores. Learn more at: https://makaukaumaui.com .  

Hawai‘i Tourism Authority Board Approves Action Plan to Support Maui’s Recovery in 2024

On December 22, 2023, the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority Board of Directors furthered its ongoing commitment to mālama Maui and support the island’s recovery by approving an immediate six-month action plan for 2024 to help address major challenges confronting residents, small businesses, visitor industry providers, Maui’s economy, and families seeking housing. Learn more here .   The action plan is designed to fulfill tourism’s responsibilities in alliance with the leadership established by Governor Josh Green, M.D. and within the broader scope of Maui’s recovery efforts being conducted by the State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) and other state agencies. HTA’s full report identifying major strategies and not only short-term but also mid- and long-term recommendations is being provided to DBEDT in their role coordinating the State’s Economic Recovery Support Functions. Read the full report .

Hawai‘i Tourism Authority Board Of Directors Approves $2.6 Million In Funding For Maui Marketing Recovery Plan

HTA's Board of Directors took decisive action at its monthly board meeting on August 31 to approve $2.6 million in funding to launch the Maui Marketing Recovery Plan , which is centered around a new Mālama Maui campaign with heartfelt messages shared by kama‘āina of Maui. The plan's focus is to rebuild responsible travel demand from the United States market to Maui in the wake of the devastating Lahaina wildfires. Watch the board meeting . HTA staff and board members were on Maui throughout August to meet with residents and business owners and listen to them about the challenges they now face with visitor arrivals decreasing significantly since August 8. Visitors help to support the economy, supporting local shops, local restaurants, and local activities which ultimately aids in the island’s overall recovery efforts.

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NOTE: While multiple dictionary sources propose "Lāhainā" as the old pronunciation for the region, living kūpuna, mānaleo and recordings of mānaleo serve to demonstrate that the contemporary pronunciation is Lahaina. Heeding the call from the Lahaina community, HTA uses the spelling Lahaina across all platforms.

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On Maui, a desperate plea to tourists: Please return

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Kirk Siegler

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A few tourists stand under a rainbow as the clouds clear at Haleakalā on the island of Maui, Hawaii. Though much of the island is untouched, tourism is down drastically. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

A few tourists stand under a rainbow as the clouds clear at Haleakalā on the island of Maui, Hawaii. Though much of the island is untouched, tourism is down drastically.

PAIA, Hawaii — One recent afternoon on Mana'o Radio , broadcasting from Wailuku on Maui, the local disc jockey Forest had a pitch for listeners streaming his Blue Bus show from outside the Hawaiian islands.

"Another way you can support Maui, come here," he said. "The Maui economy relies on tourism, to stay away now will just make the problem worse."

Despite scenes of horrible tragedy in Lahaina on the news in, Forest continued, the rest of the island is open: 730 square miles of beauty isn't burned.

This plea has become a refrain across the island.

Immediately after the deadly wildfires, tourists were turned away. Trips were canceled. Flights were suspended. Some airline apps are still warning against nonessential travel to the island.

tourism down in hawaii

Downtown Paia on Monday, some tourist shops are closed and others have adjusted hours. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

Downtown Paia on Monday, some tourist shops are closed and others have adjusted hours.

But three weeks since the fires ignited, local businesses and state tourism officials are now making desperate pleas for tourists to return to "the other 75%" of the island that is unscathed.

"It kind of feels like COVID again, where nobody's making money and they're just trying to survive," says Sne Patel, who manages vacation rentals in the resort areas around Lahaina.

Tourism accounts for nearly the entire Maui economy

Last year, tourists spent more than $5.5 billion on Maui. The island typically gets upwards of 3 million visitors a year. State tourism officials don't have an exact number on how many tourists are beginning to trickle back in again — they only count those arriving on planes, many of whom are believed to be aid workers, journalists or homeowners returning to check their properties after the disaster.

But locals estimate the number is a couple thousand at the most. And many of the tourists who are here still feel a little conflicted.

tourism down in hawaii

Tourists jump into a pool of water next to a waterfall at Pua'a Ka'a State Wayside Park. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

Tourists jump into a pool of water next to a waterfall at Pua'a Ka'a State Wayside Park.

"We were kind of scared. We didn't know if it was looked down upon for coming here," says Kennedy Syrota, as she was eating an ice cream cone in the seaside town of Paia.

Visiting from Canada, she and a friend are touring the Hawaiian islands for a month after graduating college. They decided to come back to Maui after reading a post from the surf hostel where they had planned to stay. It urged tourists to return and help keep local small businesses afloat.

"We were a little hesitant and we still are," Syrota says. "But [after]talking to more people, we know that we wanted to be here and we hope that more people come, as well."

Lahaina isn't for sightseeing

Many longtime locals are also still feeling conflicted. At first, it was unimaginable that anyone would or should vacation around Lahaina. In order to get to all the resorts and golf courses on the west side of Maui, visitors would have to drive through the destruction where urban search and recovery teams are wrapping up their grim work.

"Stay out of Lahaina, this isn't a sightseeing place right now," says Bully Kotter, who lost everything he owns in the Aug. 8 fires. "This place is devastated and it's not very sensitive, thinking about all these people and all the trauma they've gone through."

tourism down in hawaii

A memorial stands on the side of the highway that runs through Lahaina. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

A memorial stands on the side of the highway that runs through Lahaina.

But Kotter's lived here for almost 60 years. He runs a surf school. The rest of his family works at resort hotels.

Most of them are closed indefinitely.

"I'm conflicted because people have got three months of savings," Kotter says. "What are they going to do? There's going to be a mass exodus of people leaving here."

tourism down in hawaii

Bully Kotter runs a surf school in the area. He and his wife, Ashley, lost their home in the fire. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

Bully Kotter runs a surf school in the area. He and his wife, Ashley, lost their home in the fire.

A shift from don't come to visit responsibly

A mass exodus is always a big concern after such a huge disaster. But the stakes here may be higher than most considering almost the entire island is dependent on tourism.

There was already a labor and housing shortage before the fires.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority estimates that West Maui is losing more than a million dollars a day since Aug. 8. Statewide, the organization puts that figure at close to $9 million.

tourism down in hawaii

A tourist walks up a trail through the trees in Pua'a Ka'a State Wayside Park. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

A tourist walks up a trail through the trees in Pua'a Ka'a State Wayside Park.

Sne Patel, the vacation rental manager in Lahaina, is doing all he can to keep businesses afloat. One property that he owns was also destroyed. But standing at his second story balcony, he looks out over much of his neighborhood that's untouched.

"Initially saying that all of Maui was closed ... I don't know if that was the right message," Patel says. "It's hard to bring those individuals back."

Especially, he says, when the images of the devastation are still on loop in TV news footage.

Patel leads the Lahaina Town Action Committee, an advocacy group comprised of 110 local businesses. Almost all of them are believed to have burned down.

He's organizing meetings this week with federal officials and relief agencies and hopes that this area along the coast north of town can be reopened by mid October. That's when the governor's initial disaster declaration runs out.

tourism down in hawaii

Tourists take a selfie at sunset on an empty beach in Paia on Monday. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

Tourists take a selfie at sunset on an empty beach in Paia on Monday.

"I think the messaging can shift in some capacity to come and visit responsibly," Patel says. "Don't stop where the impact site is, go directly to your resort, stay around the beaches that are right at your resort. "

But some of Patel's longtime guests are telling him that for now, anyway, they just don't want to come and celebrate big milestones or vacation. It's too difficult when their favorite place is suffering from so much tragedy.

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Tourism return comes amid plunging arrivals, spending

Visitor counts fell nearly 60%, spending declined 49% in august.

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The Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa is virtually a ghost town on Sept. 22. Visitor arrivals to Maui plummeted after the Aug. 8 wildfires but are expected to return with the reopening of tourism in West Maui on Sunday, which the governor says is necessary to get people back to work but others say is too soon for a traumatized community. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Tourism on Maui in August took a major hit from the fires in Lahaina and Kula, sending visitor arrivals down nearly 60 percent from last year and cutting visitor spending in half compared to 2022.

Maui saw 112,259 visitors in August, down 57.8 percent from 266,176 visitors in August 2022, while spending went from $484 million at the same time last year to $246.7 million in August, according to preliminary statistics released by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism last week.

August arrival numbers were the lowest since February 2021, when there were 92,611 visitors. Spending was also the lowest since March 2021, when visitors spent $262.3 million.

The University of Hawai’i Economic Research Organization said that travelers responded to the fires’ horror and early appeals to stay away and that Maui lost more than $13 million in visitor spending each day in the weeks following the fires.

Employment effects of the fires “have been rapid and severe,” with the fires destroying “the vast majority of businesses and jobs in Lahaina,” UHERO said in its 2023 third quarter forecast report on Sept. 22. Local businesses across Maui are also struggling from the lower visitor numbers.

UHERO predicted that Maui unemployment “will soar above” 11 percent in the fourth quarter and will not dip below 4 percent until late 2026.

Normally there would be 130 to 140 unemployment claims on Maui per week, but in the first week of the fires there were around 800, followed by more than 4,000 unemployment claims the next week, UHERO Executive Director Carl Bonham said in a “UHERO Focus” video. If the claims are added together since the fire, the total is close to 10,000 filings, or 11 to 12 percent of the workforce on Maui, Bonham said.

Tax revenue will also be hit hard, according to UHERO. But the reopening of West Maui to tourism on Sunday will help to reduce revenue losses, as will Maui’s 0.5 percent general excise tax surcharge that begins Jan. 1. Some areas are already seeing “the beginnings of Maui tourism recovery,” with Central and South Maui resorts being the first areas “to see substantial recovery,” UHERO said.

Bonham attributed this to airlines such as Alaska and Hawaiian putting out “extremely attractive” airfares to Maui.

Even with the reopening of tourism in West Maui, “we expect recovery there to be gradual,” UHERO said.

Tourism remains a major driver for Maui and the state — Bonham said that about 40 percent of Maui’s economy is from tourism, and that visitor spending on Maui makes up about one-third of visitor spending in the state.

Gov. Josh Green announced in early September that West Maui would reopen to tourism this month, citing the need to get residents back to work and prevent them from having to leave the island. Last week, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen announced a phased approach, with a staggered return of tourism to the west side hotel properties and areas.

On Sunday, The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua will reopen along with areas from Kapalua to Kahana Villa, the county said. The next phase will be Mahinahina to Maui Kaanapali Villas, following an assessment of the first phase. The area from the Royal Lahaina Resort to the Hyatt Regency will be the last phase to give displaced residents sheltered in the area more time to find housing options.

But residents have testified before the Maui County Council and at other meetings, saying they do not want the visitors back yet as some residents are still having a hard time dealing with the tragedy and putting their lives back to together.

On Tuesday, West Maui residents delivered a petition to the governor’s office in the State Capitol on Oahu with more than 10,000 signatures urging Green to push back the reopening date. The online petition had more than 16,000 signatures as of Thursday.

With the fires keeping tourists away, Maui County’s hotels saw drops in occupancy, average daily rates and revenue per available room in August.

The county had a 52.2 percent occupancy rate in August, down 16.4 percentage points versus the 68.6 percent seen in August 2022. Average daily rates in the county were $563.62, down 8.6 percent compared to the average daily rate of $616.50 seen in 2022. Revenue per available room in August was $294.02, down 30.4 percent versus 2022, when revenue per available room was at $422.63.

As expected, hotels in the Lahaina, Kaanapali and Kapalua areas saw some of the more significant drops in August.

Occupancy was at 45.4 percent, down 26.4 percentage points versus August 2022, when West Maui hotels were 71.8 percent occupied.

Average daily room rates were slightly down at $515.13 in August, a decline of 4.2 percent compared to the rate of $537.82 in August 2022.

Revenue per available room for the West Maui hotels was at $233.90 in August, down 39.4 percent versus the $386.11 seen in August 2022.

The aftermath of the fires also ate away at tourism at Maui’s luxury region in Wailea, although the area still had some of the highest rates and room revenue across the state in August.

Occupancy in Wailea was at 56.5 percent in August, down 3.2 percentage points compared to 59.6 percent in August 2022.

Average daily rates were $816.62, down 20.3 percent versus August 2022, when average daily rates were $1,024.77.

Revenue per available room was $461.11, down 24.5 percent compared to August 2022, which saw room revenue at $611.

The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism further explained the decrease in visitors to Maui as due in part to fewer flights, as 88 direct trans-Pacific flights to Kahului in August were canceled due to the Lahaina fire. This included 68 flights from the U.S. West, seven flights from the U.S. East and 13 flights from Canada.

Also in August, the Pride of America cruise ship that usually spends two days in Kahului Harbor on each seven-day inter-island tour canceled its port of calls to Kahului, instead adding one more day in Hilo and one more day at Nawiliwili on Kauai for each tour for the last three weeks of the month.

DBEDT Director James Kunane Tokioka said in a news release that as the state welcomes the return of visitors to West Maui, including Napili, Kaanapali, Honokowai and Kapalua, “we will be supporting Maui’s economy and keeping our people employed so they can continue to live on Maui and recover.”

“We encourage respectful travel, supporting local businesses, and participation in volunteer opportunities that malama (give back to) Hawaii,” he said.

For more information on how to volunteer while in the islands, see gohawaii.com/malama.

* Staff Writer Melissa Tanji can be reached at [email protected].

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Some clouds

Hawaii News

Hawaii tourism drops, with recovery expected in 2024.

tourism down in hawaii

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / [email protected]

Above, Honolua Surf Co. manager Jasmine Pentecostes, left, helped visitor Dianna Ottoboni at the store Monday.

tourism down in hawaii

Above, Ilona Tarno­vetska, left, with daughter Olivia, and Oxana Kardash, with sons Daniel and Lev, enjoyed Kamaole Beach Park III in Kihei on Monday.

Demand for travel to Hawaii has fallen, especially on Maui, and travel industry experts say it’s not expected to materially recover until 2024. Read more

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Demand for travel to Hawaii has fallen, especially on Maui, and travel industry experts say it’s not expected to materially recover until 2024.

Jack Richards, president and CEO of Pleasant Holidays, said travel to Hawaii was up 16.5% for 2024 before the Maui wildfires in August, and is now negative statewide.

“We are off by double digits from October to April. Recovery will build gradually over time, but we don’t believe that we’ll get back to historic levels before May or June,” he said. “Right now, demand is well below historic levels for Maui. It’s the fires, (high) prices and mixed messaging. People are unsure about coming to Hawaii.”

Some of what Richards is talking about is a continuation of what is already showing up in preliminary statistics released Monday by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. The numbers showed that the sluggish return of visitors to Maui after the August wildfires and to the state from North America caused September arrivals and nominal spending statewide to drop year-over-year for the second month in a row.

Some 651,286 visitors came to the Hawaiian Islands in September, down 7.4% from September 2022 and moving the pre- pandemic arrivals recovery back to 88.5% from September 2019, according to DBEDT data.

Nominal visitor spending, which hasn’t been adjusted to show the relative price over time, fell 9.6% to $1.37 billion in September. However, nominal spending in September was still 10.2% higher than in September 2o19, when it was $1.25 billion.

Year-over-year September results varied across the islands, according to DBEDT data. Visitors to Oahu in September rose 12.5% to 433,209, while nominal spending fell -3.2% to $676.6 million.

Kauai arrivals rose 10.3% to 115,305 in September, and nominal spending increased 28.9% to $224.2 million.

Hawaii island visitors rose 8.6% to 129,444. Nominal spending on Hawaii island increased 28.7% to $254.8 million.

However, arrivals to Maui plummeted 57.1% to 94,221 visitors in September, while nominal spending plunged 52.6% to $203.2 million.

DBEDT Director James Kunane Tokioka said in a statement, “The impacts from the Maui wildfires were significant in September 2023 with both visitor arrivals and visitor expenditures down by more than 50 percent for Maui for the month compared to 2022.”

Tokioka added, “Visitor arrivals on Maui in September 2023 (94,221) recorded the lowest since February 2021 and visitor spending of $203.2 million on Maui in September 2023 was the lowest since March 2021.With the reopening of West Maui that started in October, tourism on Maui is expected to improve over the next few months.”

Mayor Maui Richard Bissen recently announced that West Maui, which had been undergoing a phased reopening since the deadly Aug. 8 Lahaina fire, would fully reopen Wednesday. While Maui bookings have improved slightly since then, hotel occupancy at Maui hotels is not even close to normal, said Keith Vieira, principal of KV &Associates, Hospitality Consulting.

“First quarter will probably be back to 50% of 2023 in Kaanapali, but Wailea will be better than that,” Vieira said.

Richards said Maui is a major reason for the decline in September demand as well as future demand for Hawaii as a whole.

But that’s only part of the equation. U.S. travel demand, in general, is undergoing a more pronounced seasonal slowdown than normal. Also, Hawaii is no longer the No. 1 travel destination for Japanese travelers, who since summer have favored South Korea.

While Labor Day boosted travel by U.S. households early in the month, data from the Omnitrak Travel Market Penetration Index showed that demand slowed below prior-year levels for September overall.

Chris Kam, Omnitrak president and chief operating officer, said in a statement, “While the usual seasonal slowdown in September is not surprising, the dip in travel was more pronounced than expected.”

“With September travel penetration aligning more closely with 2021 than prior year levels, residents in communities with overtourism concerns are experiencing some ‘breathing space’ in the Fall shoulder period following a strong summer,” Kam said.

Omnitrak founder and CEO Pat Loui said in a statement that a reason is that “international destinations continued to attract U.S. travelers in September (+18.1%), according to the National Travel and Tourism Office’s year-over-year data.”

Loui added that the “U.S. Travel Association’s Travel Price Index rose +4.4% over prior year levels, adding rising prices to the challenging marketplace conditions facing domestic destinations in September.”

To be sure, Hawaii’s largest tourist source market, the U.S. West, saw September arrivals drop to 329,187. It was a sharp 16.7% year-over-year drop — however, up 7.6% from September 2019.

Nominal spending from the U.S. West fell to $606 million, a 21.8% decrease from September 2022 but a 30% increase from September 2019.

Arrivals from the U.S. East, Hawaii’s second-largest tourist source market, fell 1o.1% to 153,635 visitors. Nominal visitor spending from the U.S. East declined 3.9% to $404.1 million; however, it was 39.9% higher than September 2019.

Japan rebounded enough to reclaim its place as Hawaii’s third-largest source market. Arrivals from Japan in September rose 87.9% year-over-year to 51,350 visitors; however that was still down 64.3% from the pre-pandemic September 2019, when 143,928 visitors from Japan came to Hawaii.

Visitors from Japan spent $79.6 million on a nominal basis in September 2023. That was up 66.5% from September 2022 but down 59.5% from September 2019 when nominal spending reached $196.5 million.

Eric Takahata, managing director of the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s contractor Hawaii Tourism Japan, said arrivals from Japan are still forecast by year’s end to be about 40% to 50% recovered to 2019. Takahata said early reports from major Japanese carriers are forecasting that arrivals from Japan to Hawaii will recover to within 70% to 80% of 2019 sometime in 2024.

The recovery of Japanese visitors to Hawaii is still challenged by unfavorable exchange rates and U.S. inflation, which is exacerbating price hikes, he said.

Takahata said while carriers have begun restoring capacity between Japan and Hawaii, some have told him that manpower issues are affecting operations and routes. He said it was good news that Delta resumed flying between Japan and Hawaii in October.

Hawaiian Airlines also restarted nonstop service between Tokyo Haneda and Kona on Sunday. Hawaiian Airlines will gradually return to its original thrice-weekly schedule in March. Hawaiian paused the route in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By March 13, the airline said, it expects Japan capacity will be 59% above summer 2023 levels.

Takahata said another issue affecting recovery of Japanese visitors to Hawaii is the amount of competition from destinations like South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Southeast Asia and Europe, he said.

“A lot of Japanese suppliers tell us, ‘If we can go to Rome for eight days and it’s the same cost as a four-day trip to Hawaii and the hotel categories are one or two categories up that we’ll do Europe now and put Hawaii off for a bit,” he said.

Takahata said HTA recently returned Hawaii Tourism Japan’s budget to $9 million, the 2019 level. He said it had been at $6.5 million or less for the past couple of years; meanwhile, competitive destinations were getting an edge on Hawaii.

“Singapore prior to the pandemic was the sixth or seventh most desired destination to go by Japanese. Now they are the third,” Takahata said. “Hawaii used to be No. 1, but we are third now. This summer we flip-flopped with Korea.”

He said Hawaii Tourism Japan has launched a new campaign called “Beautiful Hawaii,” which is “more about coming to Hawaii than coming to Hawaii properly.” The campaign includes the values of the Malama Hawaii campaign, which focused on caring for Hawaii, but it doesn’t lead with it, Takahata said.

Richards said the messaging in Hawaii’s core U.S. market got confusing after the Maui wildfires and now needs some tweaks, too.

“They have a dual mission,” Richards said. “They have to obviously appease the community and be very sensitive to the community and at the same time promote tourism to get the Maui economy back in order. I think that’s a delicate balance, and it’s very complex to do that.”

He said the result, so far, has been unclear messaging. Negative social media coupled with official messaging about how to travel to Maui also has raised concerns about resident sentiment toward travelers, Richards said.

“People aren’t sure that they will be welcomed. If they are celebrating an anniversary or a wedding, they want to know that they can do so freely and not have to feel bad,” Richards said.

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Maui police release lahaina body camera footage.

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Tourists Were Told to Avoid Maui. Many Workers Want Them Back.

A plunge in tourism after a disastrous fire has already crippled the economy in Maui. Now, some locals who wanted visitors to stay away are urging them back.

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Shallow waves splash onto a sandy beach.

By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs

Reporting from Paia and Kahului, Hawaii

In the first few days after an inferno leveled the Hawaiian town of Lahaina, the directive to tourists was emphatic: Stay away. And tourists, with a few exceptions, complied.

As it turns out, maybe too well.

Nearly a month after the fire, Maui, a tourism-dependent island with a hotel room for every seven and a half households, is hosting fewer visitors than at any point since the coronavirus pandemic. Pristine beaches sit empty, even those that are many miles from Lahaina. Hundreds of unused rental cars are parked in fields near the island’s main airport in Kahului, where planes arrive half full. Beds are made and pillows are fluffed in hotel rooms where no one has laid a head in weeks.

All of it means that the workers who form the backbone of Hawaii’s welcoming aloha spirit are now struggling. In some of Maui’s fanciest resorts, employees are being sent home with no work and no pay.

“Right now, it’s hard to think about the future and if we’re going to make next month’s rent,” said Owen Wegner, a line cook at the Grand Wailea resort in South Maui, some 30 miles outside the burn zone. He has only been called in to work two shifts in the past two weeks.

Mr. Wegner, 20, was born and raised in Lahaina and used to play a snare drum during parades down Front Street, the town’s once-idyllic commercial thoroughfare along the ocean. The fire on Aug. 8 turned the street into a graveyard of charred cars and burned buildings — and became the nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century, claiming at least 115 lives. Among them was Mr. Wegner’s grandmother, Lynn Manibog, who had helped raise him.

Mr. Wegner has had almost no time to grieve. Instead, he has been trying to figure out how to provide for his partner, Sabrina Kaitlyn Cuadro; their 1-year-old son and their daughter, who is due to be born on Sept. 5. That’s also the last day they can pay their monthly rent before late fees kick in.

“Me and her are under a lot of stress,” Mr. Wegner said.

The implosion of Maui’s economy, of which tourism comprises about 40 percent , has been swift and severe. State economic officials estimate that the island is seeing about 4,250 fewer visitors each day than normal, representing a loss of $9 million a day. In South Maui, seven of every 10 hotel rooms sit empty, compared with about two in 10 during normal times.

The plummeting numbers follow contradictory pleas from Hawaii’s politicians and residents. The governor and lieutenant governor issued emergency proclamations in the first days after the fire, saying that all nonessential travel to Maui was “strongly discouraged.”

Days later, Gov. Josh Green issued a revised order limiting its scope to the region of the fire, West Maui, which makes up only a small portion of the island. But tourism officials fear that prospective visitors may not be familiar with the island’s geography. Now, many politicians , workers and industry leaders are making a new plea to tourists: Come back.

“We stress that West Maui is not currently the place for people to go, but the rest of Maui is open,” Richard Bissen, the Maui County mayor, said this week.

Jerry Gibson, the president of the Hawaii Hotel Alliance, said he had been trying to get the message out that Maui’s south side — home to luxury hotels, condos and restaurants — was eager for the arrival of suitcase-lugging families.

“The south side of Maui is wide open,” Mr. Gibson said. “Tragically, right now, because of the earlier message, tourism is not coming in there.”

Maui residents have remained consistent that visitors should avoid all of West Maui, which continues to be a hub for displaced families. Hotels there are housing more than 5,000 people who are not tourists, including families who lost homes, government relief officials, aid organizations and cleanup crews. Locals have also warned people against clogging up the highway in a quest to see the destroyed town of Lahaina. They remind tourists elsewhere on the island to be sensitive to the fact that people they encounter may have lost their own homes or have connections to people who perished.

There has long been tension between Hawaii locals and tourists , and some residents have argued that the sharp drop in revenue Maui now faces is a sign that the state should prioritize residents over tourists and rely on more sustainable industries.

Chris West, president of the local International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which also represents workers in the tourism and pineapple industries, said that he and other Native Hawaiians have complicated feelings about tourists, but that their return was needed to sustain the economy.

“So visit, but be respectful, and we can coexist,” Mr. West said.

In Paia, a colorful town brimming with stores and restaurants on the North Shore, shops are usually hopping, even on a weekday afternoon. There is typically a long line to order at the Paia Fish Market ; a stream of people peering into the window at Mele Ukulele ; and tourists finding shade on the front patio of Tobi’s Poke & Shave Ice .

But many of the stores were eerily empty on a recent weekday, and at one local pizzeria there were so many empty booths that the general manager had plopped himself into one to get some work done. Two men sat alone at the bar.

Annie Mullen, who has worked at the restaurant off and on for the last 12 years, said that business had come nearly to “a full stop” since the fire in Lahaina, about a 45-minute drive away. Ms. Mullen said she felt guilty for worrying about her employees’ paychecks, and her own, when so many people had died. But she said she feared things would get worse if visitors continued to stay away.

“It’s really hard to navigate the grief and the shock of what horrific event just took place, but then also to have to feel selfishly worried about finances at the same time,” she said.

Nick Rodriguez, the general manager, said that in just a few weeks, he had gone from “begging for people to come work for us” to having to turn people away.

State data shows that more than 5,300 people on Maui filed initial unemployment claims in roughly the first two weeks after the fire. In normal weeks, the number of claims is closer to 120.

Many of the businesses in Paia have donated a portion of their earnings to Lahaina recovery efforts.

Down the block from the pizza shop is Wings Hawaii , a boutique selling jewelry, clothing, stickers and other beachy trinkets. Becky Dosh, one of the shop’s co-founders, said that foot traffic had plunged. One bright spot has been the new stickers the shop is offering to support Lahaina and raise money for relief efforts. Hundreds have been sold online, she said.

Ms. Dosh, who moved to Hawaii in 1999, said she thought the initial drop in tourism was helpful to allow people to grieve and begin to regroup.

“And now, people are all asking how they can help,” Ms. Dosh said. “We’ve just been telling people, actually, coming here would be really helpful.”

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports on national news. He is from upstate New York and previously reported in Baltimore, Albany, and Isla Vista, Calif. More about Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs

Our Coverage of the Hawaii Wildfires

What began as scattered brush fires on the state’s biggest islands, hawaii and maui, turned into one of the worst natural disasters in hawaii’s history..

Looking Back at the Disaster: Six months after the fire destroyed the town of Lahaina, Hawaii, the Maui Police Department released a detailed new report on the tragedy. Here are some key findings .

Legacies That Live On: Authorities have identified the last known person out of 100 people who died in the wildfire that tore through Lahaina on the island of Maui. Young and old, those lost won’t be forgotten .

Honoring the Past: As conversations about rebuilding the town of Lahaina after the devastating fires take shape, Native Hawaiians are asking that their place in local history be recognized .

A Bribery Scandal:  For years, a local businessman on Maui paid off officials in exchange for lucrative contracts. As the island recovers from the wildfires, the contract-monitoring system he exploited has been left largely unchanged .

Return of Tourism: The entire island of Maui is bracing for the return of tourism even as disaster relief efforts continue. But the path to recovery remains uncertain .

A Redemption Story Cut Short: Po’omaika’i Estores-Losano was 28, with two sons, a passion for music and a rocky past he was hoping to atone for. But the Maui wildfires stripped him of his chance to fix his mistakes .

Fearing economic disaster, Maui wants tourists to return. But feelings are complicated

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The line at Paia Fish Market usually extends so far down the main drag that staffers can’t see the end of it through their front window.

But that hasn’t been the case as of late, with tragedy on Maui slowing foot traffic in typically busy spots to a trickle.

“Today is the lowest it’s been so far,” said Lehua Jimenez, 21, a cashier at the popular restaurant in Paia — a windsurfing destination on Maui’s North Shore. “It’s continually decreasing.”

Paia is half an island away from Lahaina, where the restaurant’s other location was among more than 2,000 structures destroyed in a wildfire this month. But the Paia location was seeing about a fifth of typical sales, said Jimenez. The Maui native and her co-workers were far from the only ones feeling the economic pain.

The restaurant had only been open a few hours on a recent weekday and five people had already come in looking for jobs, Jimenez said. Not that there were any to be had, there or elsewhere.

A couple walks along the beach in Kihei, Hawaii, Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. Long before a wildfire blasted through the island of Maui the week before, there was tension between Hawaii's longtime residents and the visitors some islanders resent for turning their beaches, mountains and communities into playgrounds. But that tension is building in the aftermath of the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

World & Nation

Should you visit Maui right now? What locals want from tourists as the island rebuilds

Hawaii and Maui leaders urge tourists to act with empathy when visiting the popular island as people mourn after deadly fires. Here’s what you should know.

Aug. 28, 2023

Immediately after the Aug. 8 blaze devastated the historic town of Lahaina, killing at least 115 people and layering shock and grief across the island, the message from officials and on social media seemed clear: Tourists should stay off Maui.

But nearly three weeks after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, the sharp drop-off in visitors is sowing a different kind of fear across an island where tourism dominates the economy. In recent days, officials and others have started to sound alarm bells, begging visitors to return to other parts of Maui.

“Maui update. South Maui resorts (Lahaina is West Maui) NEED visitors. Furloughs and layoffs starting because people think the whole island is closed. It is not,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) posted Thursday on the social media platform X. “If you are planning a trip to Wailea or Kihei, don’t cancel. If you want to come to Hawaii pls consider South Maui.”

People play in the water along shore, with mountains in the distance

Some of the most outspoken voices telling visitors to stay away have softened their tone.

‘Āina Momona, a community organization whose Instagram post telling visitors to not travel to Maui went viral after it was shared by actor Jason Momoa and others right after the fire, put up a new Instagram slideshow Thursday. The message — directed at those who do decide to travel to Maui — urges tourists to avoid the affected areas, show empathy and compassion and ends with the “bottom line” that people should “visit,” “spend” and “go home.”

Lahaina, Maui, Wednesday, August 16, 2023 - Homes and businesses lay in ruins after last week's devastating wildfire swept through town. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Fateful decision in Maui: Firefighters left the scene, blaze began its deadly march unchallenged

They thought the grass fire was contained, but wind conditions were still extreme. Now the decision to pull firefighters away shortly before the Maui fire reignited has become a flashpoint, as questions mount over whether more could have been done to stave off the destruction.

Aug. 24, 2023

Trisha Kehaulani Watson, ‘Āina Momona’s co-founder, said the organization absolutely stood by its first message as the right response “in the immediate aftermath” of the fire, when people were still trying to gauge the devastation.

Now that the island was moving into a “different phase of recovery” with more clarity about the resources needed for relief efforts, Kehaulani Watson thought some level of tourism was necessary to feed the local economy.

The Lahaina fire burned through a roughly 3½-square-mile area , leaving horrific devastation in its path, and residents also lost homes in separate fires in the mountainous center of Maui. But those areas cover a tiny fraction of the 727-square-mile island.

“The fire was devastating. But if the economy doesn’t come back, then that means everybody who’s there and everyone around them is going to suffer as well,” said James Kunane Tokioka, director of Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

The hall of historic Waiola Church in Lahaina and nearby Lahaina Hongwanji Mission are engulfed in flames along Wainee Street on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. (Matthew Thayer/The Maui News via AP)

Climate & Environment

How a perfect storm of climate and weather led to catastrophic Maui fire

The Hawaiian Islands do see wildfire from time to time, but the catastrophic Maui fires were spawned by a striking mix of factors, including climate change.

Aug. 11, 2023

Most other tourist hubs outside West Maui are at least a 40-minute drive from the devastation and bear no external sign of the nearby tragedy, save for scattered donation boxes and the void of tourists.

In West Maui alone — which previously accounted for about 15% of the tourism across all Hawaiian islands — there is an estimated economic loss of $9 million a day, according Tokioka. West Maui’s hotels remain closed to visitors, with many housing employees displaced by the fires.

There were 4,444 new unemployment claims filed in Maui last week, according to the state. That’s a staggering number in a county with about 129,000 adults — and a 3,603% increase from the 120 average weekly claims before the wildfire.

A view of stores under one roof, with people gathering at tables in a courtyard area

That number — which includes those who lost jobs to the fires in West Maui, as well as those affected by slowdowns on other parts of the island — is expected to climb in the weeks to come, according to State Chief Economist Eugene Tian.

Hawaii’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic has lagged behind that of other states, Tian said, with the state’s economic recovery at about 97% of what it was before the pandemic. “Because of this incident, I think full recovery will go beyond 2025,” Tian said.

More than two dozen tourism workers who spoke to The Times described deep anxiety about the immediate future and the effect that a protracted slowdown in tourism would have on the island and for them personally.

Many said they had already seen their shifts or hours cut, and most expressed a desire for travelers to keep visiting other parts of the island. They also spoke about their personal connections to the fires, and their sometimes complicated feelings about the tourist economy.

Those contending with profound loss and those dealing with the more quotidian realities of shortened shifts and looming layoffs are not necessarily in two separate camps.

Kahului, Maui, Thursday, August 17, 2023 - Rochelle Valiente helps prepare her bed on the living room floor of the Relyn and Jowel Delfin. She and numerous other relatives displaced by the Lahaina fire, are living there until they find permanent housing. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

After Lahaina fire, 16 relatives crowd into one Maui house

Jowel and Relyn Delfin have taken 13 relatives into their central Maui home.

Aug. 21, 2023

There are people who lost their homes sitting awake at night worrying about how they’ll rebuild their lives if they also lose their jobs, along with hospitality workers struggling to get through their shifts while reliving the traumas of the fire.

Ferrying customers to and from Kahului Airport, a rental car shuttle driver pointed out the wide lots of unrented cars lining the road — something she hadn’t seen since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the island’s tourism industry in 2020.

On the rare occasions tourists get into her shuttle after the fire, she has taken to turning up the radio loud as soon as they enter the car. The woman, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said she doesn’t want them to stop coming — she and everyone she knows need the work, as she put it — but she just can’t bear to hear them chattering as though everything is normal.

A crowd of people, some seated, with luggage inside an airport

Inside the airport — the island’s primary entry point for visitors from the continental United States — most everyone from the Hawaiian-shirt clad waitress at a restaurant by the airline gates to the clerk ringing up last-minute souvenirs can dolefully cite the airport’s most recent passenger statistics.

They are, in a word, dismal.

On Tuesday, about 2,192 passengers arrived at Maui’s airport on domestic flights, according to estimates from the state. That’s a 67% drop from numbers for the same day in 2022. The average number of daily domestic arrivals for August so far is down 45% from last year, according to the same state data.

“Visitor counts from the mainland are at an all-time low” other than during the pandemic, Tokioka said.

Figures from lodging industry analyst CoStar show that as of Aug. 5, three days before the island fires reached emergency status, Maui’s hotels were 71% full. By Aug. 12 — with the death toll climbing and more than 1,000 people still missing on the island — rooms had begun emptying and CoStar estimated Maui’s overall hotel occupancy at 57%.

Cars parked in a lot, with a row of palm trees and a sign for Kahului Airport in the foreground

For the week ending Aug. 19, occupancy had dipped further, with CoStar estimating nearly half of Maui’s hotel rooms were empty — down more than 27% from a year before. Those statistics are for all rented rooms, including those filled by tourists, displaced Maui residents and emergency responders.

The island’s hotel rates averaged more than $600 per night in 2022 and even after the fires have remained above $450. Meanwhile, rental car rates have fallen below $50 a day and flights from LAX are available for less than $300.

“It was a ghost town all day today,” Maya, a small-business owner who declined to give her last name, said of foot traffic in Kihei’s Kalama Village — a charming cluster of stalls catering to tourists about a 25-mile drive down the coast from Lahaina. Her stall, which sells souvenirs and Christmas ornaments, had just three customers in the 11 hours she’d been open. Maya joked sadly that the sales wouldn’t even cover her gas money home.

She feared losing her business if visitors continued to avoid the island but also felt conflicted about voicing those fears when others had already lost so much more, she said.

As soon as he saw news of the Lahaina fire, Irvine resident Rollin Gordon canceled plans for a five-day Maui vacation with his wife that was supposed to kick off Monday. Gordon, 30, had an Airbnb booked for Wailea — an area neighboring Kihei known for its luxury hotels — but thought it was “insensitive and irresponsible” to travel there.

Crosses and a flag with a mini-Union Jack and white, red and blue stripes stand along a brown roadway

“The news reports have made it clear that thousands of people are in need of homes and proper infrastructure,” he said. “We do not wish to further burden the local community.”

Sara Hakan, a Lahaina evacuee who lost her home and her income source as a snorkel trip operator in Lahaina Harbor, said such a decision was the right one, even for people whose travels would take them to other parts of Maui.

“We cannot have tourists here right now,” Hakan said less than a week after the fire.

More than 10 days later, she felt a bit differently, saying Friday that she thought the rest of the island needed the business to keep functioning.

“But it’s a delicate balance,” Hakan said. “I don’t even know what the right thing is because the island needs time to heal at the same time that the economy needs to keep going.”

A man in a cap and long-sleeved shirt stands next to a truck, in front of a house with people on the roof

Sitting on a picnic bench in front of a postcard-perfect stretch of coastline not far from the ashes of his Lahaina home, Jeremy Delosreyes described tourism — and the way people feel about it — as one of the fundamental divides in the state.

The Native Hawaiian roofer personally wishes that the islands were far less reliant on tourism, but also recognizes it as “the economic driver of this state.” Still, he was resentful of the focus on the economic effects of fewer visitors when others — like him — had experienced such profound losses.

“It’s like well, you’re gonna lose your job, but you still have your home,” Delosreyes said. “So it’s a very dicey subject right now about tourism in Hawaii and on Maui. “

Angela Fa’anunu, assistant professor of sustainable tourism at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, said the topic of tourism in the state is so sensitive because it’s layered onto the history of colonialism. The Kingdom of Hawaii was illegally overthrown in 1893 with the aid of the U.S. armed forces and the islands became a state in 1959 — a one-sentence history that elides generations of further losses.

“Tourism doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It exists in a certain context,” Fa’anunu said, pointing to the history of marginalization and repression of Hawaii’s Native people, and the fact that visitors’ needs are often prioritized over those of locals.

Kainoa Horcajo, a cultural consultant and organizer with the mutual aid organization Maui Rapid Response, said it’s not uncommon for someone raised on the island to have family members who are vehemently anti-tourism, along with family members who work in and support the industry.

“Like any community, there’s a spectrum of sentiment. The main issue here is that this industry was developed and created by and for the benefit of foreigners,” he said, explaining “foreigners” includes those from the continental United States.

Horcajo, who is president of the Maui Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce board, thought that shifting toward a more locally led and locally created tourism economy would ease some of those tensions, and noted several efforts underway. But that will be a long road.

A man in blue shirt and sunglasses and a woman in gray jacket and white top, holding green items, follow two people

In the immediate term, he said, a nuanced message is needed: Don’t go to Lahaina or rubberneck around the ashes. But the rest of the island is open and needs your support.

At his family’s small bed and breakfast in Wailuku — far from the fires — guests have been canceling reservations all the way into December, Horcajo said.

It’s not just the business owners who are affected, Horcajo added. ”It’s the people that depend on tips. It’s the dishwashers. It’s the suppliers that are sending in the people that work for, you know, the food distribution companies and the trucking companies. There’s this whole network of people that depend upon this.”

Sean Greene contributed to this report.

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Hawaii reopens with coronavirus traveler testing program. Wakiki Beach, Honolulu, on 22 October.

Can Hawaii reset its stressed out tourism industry after the pandemic?

The islands has been feeling the weight of a tourism industry that has ballooned to what many believe is beyond the islands’ capacity

On a recent Sunday morning, Makua Beach looks like the picture of paradise.

A stretch of soft, yellow sand lies on a strip of land between the lush Waianae mountain range and the deep blue Pacific Ocean on the north-west coast of Oahu. Waves crash against rocks along the beach, and a monk seal can be seen swimming near the shore.

While this is a place that would make a striking Instagram post for visitors, it has become a source of sadness for Micah Doane. His grandmother’s family was one of many who were evicted from the area to make way for military training infrastructure during the second world war. Doane grew up taking trips to Makua with his family, including his grandmother’s brother, Ivanhoe Naiwi, who shared the heartache of the family’s displacement and passion for preserving the area with Doane.

“All of our trips down here as youngsters were with him. He kind of raised us out here,” Doane said. “As a kid growing up, we became protective over the place.”

About an hour’s drive from Honolulu, Makua has historically been remote from the bustling crowds of Waikiki. But over the last decade, Doane has seen an influx of visitors coming to Makua Beach, especially as people started tagging the “secret” beach on social media. On this particular Sunday, the parking area outside the beach is packed early with beachgoers, some of whom brought snorkeling gear to catch a glimpse of dolphins.

Doane has long been concerned about the impact snorkelers have on the Hawaiian spinner dolphins, who use the area as a place to sleep.

Makua is also popular for a cave hike, which is illegal, and camping on the beach, also illegal. With no bathrooms nearby, strands of toilet paper can be seen in bushes along the beach along with other trash that accumulates in the area.

A co-founder of Protectors of Paradise, a non-profit that promotes stewardship in the area, Doane and a group of volunteers hold weekly beach cleanups and try to educate visitors on how to respect the area. Yet the group can only cover so much ground.

Huge swell hits Hawaii, Haleiwa, Oahu, in January.

“You see every day these disrespectful people come and do whatever they want … You have your kids that are getting older, and our parents’ generation and our kupuna [elders] that are getting older, and you think it’s sad that they’re not able to enjoy these things,” Doane said. “It’s to the point where it’s kind of hurt an entire community.”

This area on the west side of Oahu is just one of many places throughout the islands that has been feeling the weight of a tourism industry that has ballooned to what many believe is beyond the islands’ capacity.

A rise in vacation rentals, of which there were 23,000 in the islands in 2018, and the growth of social media saw more tourists visiting Hawaii and increasingly going into its more residential and protected areas. In 2019, 10 million visitors came to Hawaii, which has a population of about 1.5 million. It was the highest number of tourists in a single year the islands had seen in its history.

The phenomenon, known as overtourism , has seen travelers overwhelm not just Hawaii but many of the US national parks and has frustrated residents in cities around Europe , like Venice and Barcelona, and elsewhere.

The Covid-19 pandemic delivered an unusual mixture of pain from economic loss and relief to residents of places that have gotten used to crowds of tourists. In Hawaii, locals hiked popular trails and visited beaches that are usually clogged by tourists. Traffic was noticeably lighter, and things in the islands were generally calmer.

Things are already looking much different in 2021. About 30,000 travelers are now flying into Hawaii each day, over 80% of the number of travelers that were flying in during the same time in 2019. Around the islands, it seems that tourism as it was before the pandemic is coming back.

While that means jobs are back, surveys from the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA), the state’s tourism agency, have shown local residents are taking on an increasingly negative opinion of tourism, even in light of the pandemic. In 2020, over half of the respondents to the survey agreed that tourism had brought more problems than benefits.

“There’s an understanding, even within the [tourism] industry … based upon our experience in 2019, that tourism shouldn’t come back the way it was – an unmanaged state,” said Frank Haas, a tourism industry expert based at the University of Hawaii (UH). “That in my mind is pretty clear. The question is, who’s going to pick up the torch and develop a good management plan?”

A balancing act

The parking lot of Hanauma Bay nature preserve, a popular beach and snorkeling spot for visitors on the southern tip of Oahu, is completely empty, save for a few employee cars. The spot would typically be open on this Monday and packed with visitors. But after the pandemic, the Honolulu parks department, which manages the beach, closed the beach for an additional day so the bay gets rest two days each week.

“You can see how clear the waters are right now because it’s a closed day. When you come and it’s an open day, it’ll be very milky, [with sand] stirred up by all the visitors,” said Ku’ulei Rodgers, a researcher with the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology at UH. This sedimentation can affect the health of coral colonies in the preserve, the larger of which have been dying over the last few years.

Rodgers and other researchers at UH have utilized the pandemic as an opportunity to better study the impact visitors have on Hanauma Bay. Along with clearer waters, the researchers noticed schools of larger fish, like jackfish and milkfish, foraging in the bay and even spotted a few monk seals resting on the beach for the first time in years.

While the bay is a beautiful spot to lounge and snorkel for humans, it is an important refuge for fish. A lack of predators in the bay and low impacts from heavy storm surf and freshwater make the bay a uniquely safe place for fish, of which there have been up to 400 species in the preserve.

While impacts from visitors pale in comparison with the effects of climate change, which has caused devastating bleaching events in the bay’s water, Honolulu’s parks department has for years taken on a series of measures to curtail overcrowding at the preserve.

To enter Hanauma Bay, along with paying a $12 fee, visitors must watch a 10-minute education video on the history and importance of the bay as a nature preserve. In December, when the city reopened Hanauma Bay to visitors, it halved the number of people who could watch the video at once, essentially halving the number of visitors who can visit Hanauma Bay each day to just over 1,000.

The parks department is continuously evaluating the bay’s visitor capacity, teaming up with Rodgers and other researchers to find the balance between access to Hanauma Bay and protection of it.

“[The research] is a big tool for us to determine where that sweet spot is, what’s the right number of people visiting where we can get them in and have them enjoy this beautiful natural treasure but at the same time not having a completely detrimental impact on the nature that’s attracting them,” said Nathan Serota, a spokesperson for the Honolulu department of parks and recreation.

Surf breaks on Oahu’s coast. The weight of a tourism industry has ballooned to what many believe is beyond the islands’ capacity.

Hanauma Bay’s reservation system has existed for years, but after the massive number of tourists in recent years, the state is starting to implement similar systems at other popular tourist spots to combat overcrowding.

After severe flooding closed Haena state park on Kauai to visitors in 2018, local residents were treated to empty roads and beaches. The state’s department of land and natural resources (DLNR) worked with the local community to develop a reservation system that caps the number of visitors at the park at 900, down from the 3,000 before the flood.

Along with setting up reservation systems, the state is also turning toward increased fees in an attempt to control crowds. The fee to hike O​ahu’s famous Diamond Head volcanic cone have doubled for out-of-state visitors, it now costs $90 to park a vehicle carrying over 26 people. And the state legislature is considering a bill that would implement a $20 “green fee” – which places like Palau and Bhutan have implemented – that would go toward a fund to promote the state’s environmental goals.

“We’re more cognizant of the impacts that tourism has,” Serota said. “You’re starting to see that you can’t just have a policy of let’s bring in as many tourists and possible and reap the benefits. Now we have to look at managing it more effectively to see how we can create an experience and not have a negative impact on the local population as well.”

Destination management

But change isn’t going to be easy. In its last five-year strategic plan, released in 2020 before the pandemic, HTA said that destination management – a term that in recent years has been used to describe the solutions to overtourism – has become a major focus of the agency, which has historically been in charge of the state’s tourism marketing. “The continuous drive to increase visitor numbers has taken its toll on our natural environment and people,” the agency said in its plan .

Over the last few months, HTA has released three action plans for destination management on Kauai, Maui and the Big Island. It expects to release Oahu’s plan later this summer.

The influx of visitors seen at the end of 2019 “was enough to start driving our work in a direction to say how do we transition from a destination marketing organization to a destination management organization?” said Kalani Kaanaana, director of Hawaiian cultural affairs and natural resources at HTA.

Kaanaana was one of 14 Native Hawaiian authors who put out a declaration calling for action toward long-term sustainability in the islands, including managing the relationship between residents and visitors. Nearly 3,000 individuals, community groups and businesses, including HTA, have signed on to the declaration.

Destination management will not be an easy task for HTA as the agency faces limited authority to carry out some of its recommendations. Regulation of short-term vacation rentals, for example, which greatly affects the number of tourists, is handled on a county level. And the state’s legislature recently moved to cut HTA funding and strip the agency of some of its responsibilities, with legislators saying the agency should focus on marketing.

Haas, a former vice-president of HTA, said state leaders, who have been enmeshed in the complicated politics of tourism, need to develop a coordinated plan to address tourism for any long-term change to happen.

“At least in the short term, we don’t have a lot of viable options for tourism as an economic driver,” said Haas. “We really need to figure out how to thoughtfully manage and until we do that, it’s just going to be haphazard.”

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With full return of Japan tourism on hold, Hawaii seeing strong activity from US visitors

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - While Hawaii awaits the full return of Japanese visitors, tourism from the U.S. mainland has provided a solid boost for the state’s economy.

The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization released its first quarter forecast Friday morning.

Experts say Hawaii’s post-pandemic recovery is mostly complete and domestic visitors have been a big part of that — accounting for more than 70% of all visitors.

But, as 2024 progresses, that activity expected to soften up, due to reduced savings and high interest rates.

While Japanese visitor spending doubled in the past year, activity is still 60% lower than pre-COVID levels.

“The U.S. per person, per day visitor spending rose so much that it was on par with what we we used to talk about the high-spending Japanese, but now they’re actually being outspent by US visitors,” said UHERO executive director Carl Bonham.

Bonham says the next two years should see big growth in the local construction industry, largely due to the multi-billion dollar dry dock replacement project at Pearl Harbor and the rebuilding of Lahaina.

“We’re assuming that infrastructure work starts in the second half of 2024, so you’ll have enough debris removal and you’ll actually begin to have some properties that people can get to and can start rebuilding on,” Bonham said.

UHERO’s full report can be viewed by clicking here .

Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

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Hawaii Tourism Is Way Up — and It’s Just Getting Started

Sally French

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While the pandemic pummeled Hawaii in its early stages, the Aloha State’s tourism industry is back, and by some metrics, bigger than ever. The number of tourists from the U.S. mainland is higher than it was before the pandemic — and average spending per trip is also higher.

More demand means higher prices — and the increase in demand is just getting started. Travelers from Asia, who previously comprised a significant portion of Hawaii tourists, have not returned to Hawaii in pre-pandemic numbers, due in large part to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.

But with recent border reopenings in Asia, coupled with some big changes coming to the Hawaii tourism scene (including Disney cruises and a clampdown on tourist accessibility), the future for Hawaii travelers will likely be competitive — and expensive. Still, there are ways to visit that allow you to avoid crowds, minimize over-tourism and save money.

Tourism in Hawaii is at record highs by some metrics

More than 700,000 people visited Hawaii in September 2022, representing a 95.5% recovery from the same month in 2019. But while overall tourism numbers haven’t exceeded pre-pandemic levels, many other metrics have been blown out of the water, according to data from the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

Here are some of the most significant changes in Hawaii tourism between September 2019 and September 2022:

Overall tourism spending in Hawaii is up 18.5%.

The average trip length is up 5.9%.

The number of tourists visiting from the rest of the U.S. is up 29%.

Increased spending might be partly due to inflation. The average cost of airfare increased about 8% nationwide between September 2019 and September 2022, while hotel prices increased 5%, according to a NerdWallet analysis of Consumer Price Index data . But in that period, the nationwide increase in inflation — up 16% — is less than the 18.5% spending increase specific to Hawaii.

Stays in Hawaii are longer than they were pre-pandemic — possibly because of an increase in workcations . The average stay in September 2022 spanned 8.9 days, up 5.9% from the average 8.4-day stay in September 2019.

People are also spending more on daily activities like hotels, tours and food than they did pre-pandemic. Average spending per person, per day in September 2022 was $236, up 17.1% from the same month in 2019.

Of all the islands, Oahu has seen the sharpest increase in average daily visitor spending since pre-pandemic times, up 25%. Oahu has also seen some significant investment in tourist-minded improvements — many of which put a fresh emphasis on Hawaii’s culture and history.

tourism down in hawaii

The Ford Island Control Tower. (Photo courtesy of the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum)

For example, the Ford Island Control Tower at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum opened this summer after a restoration project that took over a decade. The Polynesian Cultural Center’s Ali'i Luau had its official relaunch in August 2022. (It initially launched not long before pandemic shutdowns in fall 2019.) Seth Casey, a marketing manager at the Polynesian Cultural Center, says it’s the only luau in Hawaii that features a historically accurate Hawaiian cultural presentation.

And tourists are responding well to such additions. More than two-thirds of tourists from the U.S. and Canada participated in activities centered around history or culture in the first quarter of 2022, according to DBEDT.

Supply might not grow — which could put more pressure on prices

For all the demand, there might not be much of a supply increase. The majority of Hawaii residents say they don’t want more lodging to be built.

While 77% of residents want to clamp down on illegal vacation rentals, 64% don’t want any new vacation rentals, period. That’s according to DBEDT’s Spring 2022 Resident Sentiment Survey, which interviewed nearly 2,000 Hawaii residents between May and July 2022. And it’s not just vacation rentals; 66% said they didn’t want to allow the building of any additional hotels, condos or timeshares.

tourism down in hawaii

Kamaole Beach, south shore of Maui. (Getty Images)

There are also caps on activities for Hawaii travelers. For example, a pilot project from Park Maui this winter will restrict parking access at Maui's Kamaole Beach parks on weekends and holidays before 10 a.m., allowing only Maui County residents to park. Non-residents can park there after 10 a.m. — for a fee. (Meanwhile, resident parking is free.)

Such changes stem in part from rising anti-tourism sentiment. In 2009, 78% of residents said they at least somewhat agree that tourism brings more benefits than problems. But that figure has been steadily decreasing. In 2022, it’s just 54%.

But some residents are more receptive to tourism than others. On Oahu — which saw the largest increase in average visitor spending of all the islands versus pre-pandemic — pro-tourism sentiment has recently increased, reversing a downward trend that began before the COVID-19 pandemic. Residents on Oahu and the Big Island were more likely than those on Maui or Kauai to say that tourism should be actively encouraged, according to DBEDT data.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of residents on Maui and Kauai have stated that their island “is run for tourists at the expense of local people,” and that the “economy is too dependent on tourism.” Residents of those islands are more likely to want to stop building hotels or approving vacation rentals. They’re also more likely to call for resident-only days at parks and beaches.

Still, Hawaii tourism will likely continue to explode

While the number of tourists in Hawaii is at about 96% of its pre-pandemic levels, signs point to 2023 far exceeding that.

For starters, the number of tourists from the rest of the U.S. has already massively increased, up 29% in September 2022 versus September 2021, according to DBEDT data. Meanwhile, tourism from other countries is still down — most notably from Japan.

In 2019, more than 1.5 million tourists came from Japan, representing about 15% of all tourists to the state. For now though, Japanese tourism is still down 83%.

That figure could shift, as Japan recently reopened its borders to independent foreign travelers following nearly three years of heavy pandemic restrictions. Travelers can now enter Japan without applying for a visa in advance — and likewise, it’ll be far easier for people from Japan to get to Hawaii. Direct flights between the two destinations only resumed in August 2022 after a pandemic hiatus, making convenient travel to Hawaii from Japan possible again.

tourism down in hawaii

A cruise ship lingers over Nawiliwili Beach Park in Kauai. (Getty Images)

Then there are cruises. Hawaii paused cruise ship arrivals during the first two years of the pandemic. Then, in the first nine months of 2022, 26 out-of-state cruise ships arrived, bringing 40,658 tourists, according to DBEDT. That’s far fewer than the 44 cruise ships carrying 95,149 tourists that arrived during the same period in 2019, but cruises are coming back.

tourism down in hawaii

Beginning in October 2023, the Disney Wonder will offer the fleet’s first-ever South Pacific itineraries, which either start or end in Hawaii. (Photo courtesy of Disney Cruise Line)

Just this year, Disney Cruise Line announced its first-ever cruises through the South Pacific, which will take visitors between Honolulu and Sydney, with stops that include American Samoa and Fiji.

Should tourists go to Hawaii? Yes, but mindfully

There are plenty of ways to cut down on contributions to Hawaii tourism problems and save money. Here’s how to minimize both costs and overtourism when traveling to the islands.

Patronize historically accurate visitor experiences: While residents are mixed on tourism’s benefits, most agree that educating visitors about the islands’ cultural and natural resources is crucial. Tourist activities like the Polynesian Cultural Center’s Ali'i Luau are trying to tackle that.

When the show went into development in 2019, Casey says the creators went to painstaking efforts to make sure they got feedback from cultural experts to ensure it was accurate.

The luau is a tribute to Hawaii's last ruling monarch, Queen Liliuokalani. Performers onstage tell her story in her own words and play original compositions she wrote.

Ditch rental cars for mass transit: Don't be intimidated by the idea of exploring Hawaii without a rental car. It can be done. Oahu is generally the easiest Hawaiian island to navigate without a car, given its public transportation system, TheBus, and the privately owned Waikiki Trolley that stops at most major tourist attractions. On other islands, try taking small group tours rather than renting a car and fighting traffic on your own. For experiences like Maui’s famous winding Road to Hana, paying someone else to drive while you enjoy the scenery might be ideal anyway.

Respect natural resources: While you can spend time in nature for little to no cost, it's important to be mindful of the environment. Don't carve your name in trees or leave trash behind, and stay on trails whenever possible.

tourism down in hawaii

The Courtyard Oahu North Shore is among the hotels with no resort fees. (Photo courtesy of Marriott)

Seek out hotels that don’t charge resort fees: Resort fees are one of the most brutal — and increasingly common — aspects of travel found in popular destinations like Hawaii. These semi-hidden fees purport to cover the costs of expenses such as the fitness center or pool, but they’re non-negotiable. Even if you don’t use the amenities, the fees are still charged.

But some hotels have opted out of charging them. Courtyard Oahu North Shore, for example, offers standard amenities like a swimming pool and waterfall, plus cultural activities like ukulele and hula classes with no additional fee.

“We look at it from a guest perspective,” says Dave Betham, the property’s general manager. “We like the idea that there are no surprises.”

Making Hawaii tourism better for residents and locals

Hawaii tourism is growing — and it looks set to reach new highs beyond even pre-pandemic times.

For tourists, Hawaii can be a prime vacation destination. It can be an escape from colder climates and an opportunity to explore a different culture through new foods, activities and historical sites.

tourism down in hawaii

Zipline riders on Oahu. (Photo courtesy of Climbworks Keana Farms)

Many of those within Hawaii’s tourism industry say they want to offer activities that still respect the land. That includes folks like Betham, mentioned above, as well as Aaron Campbell, who owns Climbworks Keana Farms, a zipline company on Oahu’s North Shore.

“We want visitors to come, but we want them to come responsibly,” Campbell says.

During the 10-minute ride to the mountain top, tourists are taught about Hawaii's history, culture and farming. Educational exhibits are sprinkled along the zipline tour itself.

“As we now look at this push for tourism that we’ve gone through, we’re reexamining the value of tourism,” Betham says. “How do we make that experience better for the guests, better for us, better for the Hawaiian people?”

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tourism down in hawaii

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Hawaii’s Overtourism Problem May Get Worse Than Ever

(Bloomberg) -- In early 2021, Hawaii’s tourism board kicked off a trailblazing plan to inject authentic Native Hawaiian culture into every facet of its visitor industry, using it to help protect its communities and fragile places while deepening the tourist experience. Now, just three years in, the “Malama Hawaii” or “Care for Hawaii” initiative to push sustainable tourism may be on its way out.

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As a busy summer travel season impends, Hawaii’s legislators have allocated no funds for the state’s 25-year-old tourism office in the proposed state tourism budget bill for fiscal year 2023-2024, which will kick off on July 1. And late in April, lawmakers considered two bills to disband the Hawaii Tourism Authority and replace it with an agency that would focus less on marketing Hawaii to tourists and more on managing the destination’s resources.

The bill was deferred and HTA remains in place, but numerous knowledgeable people who spoke to Bloomberg predict that excluding the agency in the final budget would significantly curtail HTA’s efforts in managing tourism on the islands.

John De Fries, chief executive officer at the Hawaii Tourism Authority, said in a newsletter that without funding, the HTA’s work in destination management, visitor education and brand marketing work will be jeopardized. The HTA, he said, will be “making tough decisions in the coming days” about canceling existing contracts and “ongoing community work.”

Legislators said the tourism office can tap into $30 million in unused funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to continue managing tourism — equal to half the money that the HTA had requested for the upcoming fiscal year.

All this poses an existential threat to the cultural activities, festivals and community-led volunteer opportunities that have recently made Hawaii such a vibrant place to visit — as well as improved crowd control measures protecting the state’s most fragile places.

Tourism Tensions

The friction between legislators and Hawaii’s tourism office is not new. It reached a boiling point in 2019, when Hawaii’s 1.5 million residents watched it become a case study in overtourism amid 10.4 million annual arrivals. Among the side effects of that unregulated industry: garbage littering popular sights, beaches so crowded you’d have a hard time finding space for a towel, coral reefs suffering from bleaching, traffic snarls caused by selfie-snapping tourists, and sacred places being desecrated by graffiti and spray paint.

For many Hawaiians inside and outside the government, HTA was a victim of its own success marketing the state. And for that, HTA began giving itself a major overhaul.

A leadership of largely white executives was replaced with one almost entirely comprising Indigenous Hawaiians; the agency’s goals were refocused on making tourism more sustainable for everyone.

The “Malama Hawaii” campaign took off. It spread responsible tourism messaging to visitors before during their trips and created sustainable experiences to help visitors be more mindful of the fragility of Hawaii’s beautiful and sacred places. It also helped disperse foot traffic to reduce the harmful impacts of mass tourism.

The changes helped attract more affluent, higher-spending travelers, which explains why in 2023 the state is projected to bring in a record $1 billion in hotel bed taxes. Those guests, in turn, were happy to contribute to educational community-led activities such as beach cleanups in Kauai, tours of a chocolate farm in Oahu and joining cultural walks in Waikiki.

For some Hawaiian legislators, that progress was too slow. The government has since reined in the tourism office’s spending powers, cut off its direct line of funding from hotel taxes and began requiring state approval to award contracts and pass annual budgets.

“The legislature didn’t think [the change] was going fast enough,” says Frank Haas, president at Marketing Management Inc. and a consultant for the HTA’s 2020-25 strategic plan for sustainable tourism development.

Mondy Jamshidi-Kent, a professor of travel management at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, says some legislators have been committed to disbanding the HTA for at least five years, having made up their minds before De Fries could get to work.

“I’m disappointed to have learned that they don’t incorporate the last three years of statistically measured improvement,” she says, arguing that the current discussions are driven more by emotion than data. “This is a disturbing threat to our democratic process.”

Jamshidi-Kent speculates that this “new way of tourism,” which centers Hawaiian culture in business operations and adds layers of true accountability, may have been perceived as threatening by certain members of the government. “It doesn't make sense why the legislature is trying to fix something that’s working.”

Seeds of Sustainability

In a short period, HTA had made measurable progress. More than 25% of US mainland visitors to Hawaii surveyed during the fourth quarter 2022 reported seeing messaging before and during their trip about “caring for and respecting Hawaii's culture, people, and environment.”

On the sustainability front, a growing number of state parks now require reservations; the 4,000-acre ‘Īao Valley State Monument on Maui just became the fourth state park using an advance booking system for out-of-state visitors, as of May 1. The number of community-run volunteer experiences for tourists via HTA-funded pilot programs led by the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association (NaHAA), in collaboration with nonprofit organization Travel2change, more than doubled, from 30 to about 70, in recent years.

All this helped improve sentiment among residents about tourism, explains Mālia Sanders, executive director at NaHAA. A quarterly survey taken in fall 2022 showed that almost half of 1,949 Hawaii residents surveyed statewide said they believed tourism was being better managed than previously; there was little change, however, in the number saying their own island is being run for tourists at the expense of residents.

What Comes Next

Those calling for the closure of HTA favor building a different kind of tourism office that would focus exclusively on sustainable management of tourism, not marketing to tourists. It would take time to establish, and it will come with costs.

At risk are programs and experiences that are as valuable to travelers as to locals — HTA-sponsored events like the Hawaii Book and Music Festival on Oahu, which celebrates Hawaiian heritage and cultures through storytelling and song; the Hawaii Food & Wine Festival; the Maui Ukulele Festival; and the Big Island Chocolate Festival. These festivals help put Hawaiian artists and culture in the spotlight, giving visitors a richer experience and locals meaningful revenue streams.

Unless Governor Josh Greene vetoes the proposed state budget, many of these programs would probably suffer cuts in the next three to six months. “To take all that away is terrifying,” says Sanders of the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association. Also at risk would be the reservations systems and crowd control measures that are currently mitigating overtourism in Hawaii’s most fragile and beautiful corners.

One solution would involve rethinking the HTA’s place in the government, giving it authority to work collaboratively with such other agencies as the Department of Land and Natural Resources, says tourism marketing veteran Haas. Goodwill to support such a radical restructuring may be lacking.

Outreach should be a part of any future agency’s mission, argues Sanders. Without it, she asks: “How do we attract the right kind of visitor that is willing to be educated while they are here—willing to contribute and be a part of social change?”

Jamshidi-Kent agrees. Marketing, she explains, makes the difference between telling visitors, “Hey come to Hawaii, lay on the beach, have a Mai Tai,” to saying, “Hey, we would love you to come, but remember this is our home. You have to take care of this place.”

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Hawaii Gov. Josh Green on Monday used his annual State of the State address to lead lawmakers and guests in a moment of silence for victims of the Lahaina wildfire and to propose aggressive steps to shift more vacation rentals into residential use to meet both Maui and the state’s  acute housing needs .

Those gathered for the speech delivered a standing ovation to two Maui firefighters — Keahi Ho and Koa Bonnell — who traveled from Maui for the governor’s talk, which focused heavily on helping Maui recover from August’s deadly wildfires.

“The people of Maui have shown strength in the face of adversity,” said Green, a Democrat. “But the days ahead will not been easy and they will continue to need our support and we will be there for them as long as it takes.”

A  wildfire fueled by hurricane-force winds  raced through the historic coastal town of Lahaina on Aug. 8, killing 100 people and destroying thousands of homes and buildings.

Green’s acknowledgement of all those who rushed to Maui’s aid after the fire brought tears to the eyes of state Rep. Dee Morikawa, the House majority floor leader and a Democrat representing the western part of Kauai and Niihau.

“It’s just good to know that all of Hawaii is coming together for Maui,” Morikawa said after the address.

The most urgent unmet need on Maui is now stable long-term housing for some 5,000 residents who are staying in hotel rooms because they haven’t been able to find affordable places to rent on the island, one of the nation’s most expensive places to live.

Green aims for all 5,000 to move into long-term housing  by March 1  in part by encouraging owners of vacation rentals to make their units available to wildfire evacuees. He told reporters authorities have about two-thirds of the needed housing units lined up so far. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and charitable organizations will be covering the rental costs.

More broadly and longer-term, Green proposed a two-year “tax amnesty” to encourage owners of vacation rentals around the state to sell to owner-occupants or long-term rental landlords. Participants would be exempt from capital gains, conveyance and general excise taxes under this two-year program.

Green told reporters afterward he was going to put “a lot of pressure” on short-term rentals because he didn’t believe they were appropriate.

“I don’t want to be rude, but I do want people to realize that that market should be for our local families,” Green said. He noted that workers in a range of fields — including nurses now on strike at the state’s only pediatric hospital — are struggling because of Hawaii’s housing shortage and high housing costs.

In addition, Green said he’s asking the Legislature to put $373 million in the budget for infrastructure and housing.

“This remains our administration’s top statewide priority,” he said.

Green revisited the idea of imposing a  fee on travelers  to help pay for environmental upkeep after a proposal to do so  died in committee  last year. The governor suggested charging each family visiting Hawaii a $25 “climate impact fee” when they check in to their hotel or short-term rental. He said this would raise $68 million a year.

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The House Finance Committee’s chairperson, Rep. Kyle Yamashita, said he would have to look at the details of the governor’s tax amnesty plan but indicated he was open to the idea.

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Japanese visitors to Hawaii are trickling back

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tourism down in hawaii

A tourist from Japan snaps a photo of Fissure 8 inside Leilani Estates, Friday, Oct. 12, 2018 in Pahoa, Hawaii. Lava from Kilauea volcano destroyed hundreds of homes and overtook two oceanfront communities this past summer. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

The full recovery of visitor arrivals from Japan, one of Hawaii’s most coveted source markets, continues to fall short, and a complete return to 2019 levels could take until 2026.

Eric Takahata, managing director for Hawaii Tourism Japan, said the first quarter is tracking about the same as the disappointing fourth quarter of 2023. But he said some pickup is expected for the Honolulu Festival, the peak seasonal Golden Week and the Honolulu Marathon, an event that traditionally draws Japanese arrivals.

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Takahata said summer holds the promise of more traffic because of some abatement to U.S. inflation. Also, monetary policies in both countries are expected to narrow the gap between the dollar and the yen.

Takahata said earlier this year the travel industry was forecasting that Japanese arrivals to Hawaii would be recovered by as much as 70% or 80% of 2019 by year’s end. However, he said current market conditions are difficult to read.

“If you are talking about 100% of what Hawaii had in 2019, then it’s probably going to be 2026,” he said.

The return of the Japan market to Hawaii has been much anticipated, and frankly over-promised. As far back as 2022, a delegation from the Japan Association of Travel Agents visited Hawaii and predicted that in 2023 Hawaii would see the Japan market restored to its 2019 level of more than 1.5 million visitor arrivals.

In July an inaugural Hawai‘i-Japan Sister State and Sister City Summit drew hundreds of senior government officials and business and civic leaders with the aim of revitalizing sister relationships in the wake of the pandemic to create new initiatives to boost trade, direct investment and improve collaboration between Japan and Hawaii. During the summit, the outlook for full recovery of the Japan tourism market to Hawaii was over-optimistically targeted for the end of this year.

The continued shortfall is a huge cause for concern for Hawaii’s greater economy as plenty of tourism infrastructure and businesses have been built around catering to more robust visitor arrivals from Japan. Hawaii businesses that specialize in the Japan market also have noted that the continued downturn in arrivals from Japan has affected recovery of Hawaii’s film industry and educational exchange programs.

Eugene Tian, chief economist for the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, said during the 2024 Annual Outlook &Economic Forecast Forum for the Hawaii Chapters of the Pacific Asia Travel Association and the Travel and Tourism Research Association that between 2019 and 2023 Japanese arrivals dropped from a 15.4% share of Hawaii’s overall arrivals to a 6% share.

Japan travel sellers and marketers told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the Japan visitor market has lagged returning to Hawaii for a variety of reasons. One of the key reasons is that the Japanese government did not lower its COVID-19 threat and put it on par with the flu until May.

More recently, the issue has been high airline fuel surcharges and an unfavorable exchange rate due to the strong dollar. That’s been exacerbated by U.S.inflation and aggressive marketing from other other destinations like South Korea and Guam as well as Europe.

Ted Kubo, president and CEO of JTB Hawaii, said during the PATA /TTRA event that if customers “used to pay $3,000 for a trip, it’s at least $4,000 now.”

Kubo said fuel surcharges have come down some but still range from $300 to $400 per person round trip. He said that’s part of the reason that South Korea and Hawaii now are tied for the No. 1 travel destination in JTB’s most recent survey of customer travel demand.

Moreover, he said, another concerning development is that there are signs that the younger generation of Japanese travelers has lost some interest in Hawaii. He said a reason might be that since the pandemic, fewer of them have traveled overseas for school or cultural exchange.

Kubo added, “During this time there also were YouTube social media posts that the younger generation watch, and at one point you see so many, ‘Oh wow, this one bowl of ramen cost me $30.’”

In response, Kubo said JTB Hawaii has increased its value proposition by offering Hawaii-bound customers airport shuttles, trolley service, hotel lounges, customer service stations and packages that include meals or activities.

Despite the roadblocks, there are opportunities for Japan to rebound. Takahata said the Hawaii Tourism Authority approved a $9 million budget for the Japan market for 2024 — the first time since 2019 that the budget has been fully restored. He said HTA also approved pivoting from a strictly malama (take care of) Hawaii marketing campaign to two new campaigns called “Beautiful Hawaii ” and “It’s Got to Be Hawaii.”

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Discover These 8 Smallest Towns in Hawaii

I t’s hard to believe, but Hawaii has managed to maintain small towns. Tourism in Hawaii started as an industry in the 1860s when the Kilauea volcano became a popular destination for many thrill-seekers. Hawaii was annexed to the United States in 1898 after Queen Liliuokalani stepped down from the throne. Before her adjudication, conflict erupted between Hawaii’s traditional government and wealthy plantation owners. After she was imprisoned in her palace, Queen Liliuokalani stepped down in an attempt to end the conflict. Sanford Dole, a sugar plantation owner, declared himself President of the Republic of Hawaii afterward. Soon, Oahu was developed into a major sugar cane production hub.

Tourism was initially dependent on boat travel, with the first flights to Hawaii established in the late 1930’s. Hawaii’s unique culture, beautiful scenery, and active volcanoes have helped grow tourism to a billion-dollar industry for the chain of islands.

The Islands of Hawaii

Another thing that often comes as a surprise to many is that Hawaii is actually made up of over 100 islands. Of these, only seven are inhabited. Inhabited islands are Hawaii, locally known as the ‘Big Island”, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Oahu, Kauai and Niihau.

Each island has different adventures, attractions, and communities. Read more about what makes each island special, and which islands have the best small towns tucked away amid the tourism.

Before you go, be sure to check out our guide on the wildlife you’ll find in Hawaii . The islands are home to many unique animals you won’t find anywhere else, thanks to their unique ecosystem.

As 1.1440 million people call Hawaii home, it’s no wonder people refer to it as the ‘Big Island.” Hawaii offers jet-black beaches, stunning national parks, surfing, fine dining, shopping and accommodations that range from luxurious to laid-back. Hawaii contains six volcanoes , which help to create a diverse ecological system for the island.

Holualoa, a Small Town Built on Coffee

While you might not know the name Holualoa , if you’ve ever enjoyed a cup of Kona coffee, you might have this small town to thank. With less than 3,000 residents, tucked high on the slopes of Hualālai Volcano between Keauhou and Kailua-Kona, the town is surrounded by coffee farms. The volcano-ash-rich soil of this little town has made it perfect for farming. Visitors can embark on guided tours of the area while learning how coffee-farming families developed the town. The narrow streets are lined with art, galleries, and coffee shops for when you’re ready to relax.

Holualoa was named after the practice of sledding down the Hawaiian mountains on wooden sleds. While you might not see many do this today, you can enjoy another famous Hawaiian pastime and take in a ukulele building workshop.

Volcano Village

Volcano Village , located in the forest right under Volcanoes National Park, is blink-and-you’ll-miss-it small town with a population of under 800. You’ll be glad that you don’t however, especially if you stop by the farmer’s market that’s held every Sunday for locally-grown produce. Native artisans and glass blowers. Volcano Village is also home to a working winery.

Visitors who want a truly rustic experience should pack a tent, as camping is permitted in the lush rainforest.

Honoka’a 

Once a sugar plantation town on the north side of the island, Honoka’a is now home to around 2,350 permanent residents. Honoka’a is directly on the way to the Waipiʻo Valley. Some of the residents in this small town carry on the farming tradition, while others work in nearby industry. While the town itself may appear quaint, don’t be fooled. The picturesque, small-town streets are filled to the brim with antiques, local arts and craft and local beef, produce and goods. Equally delicious are the dining options, which includes the Tex drive in, where you can try Portuguese donuts.

Kauai is referred to as the Garden Island, as it’s known for its breathtaking natural beauty, exceptional even for Hawaii. Cliffs provide shelter to tropical rainforests, rivers pour out into waterfalls and Koke’e State Park provides scenic hikes. Snorkeling, surfing, hiking, and kayaking along the river are popular activities. Kauai is the one place anyone with an adventurous and outdoor spirit must visit when they plan their trip to Hawaii.

Old Koloa Town

With approximately 2,300 residents, Old Koloa Town is one of the smallest town in Kauai. The town was built around Hawaii’s first successful sugar mill, and Old Koloa has worked to preserve that history. Many of the building that make up not only the residences, but the downtown shopping center are restored plantation-era structures.

Located near Po’ipu Beach, visitors can stroll down the main shopping district or take a walking history tour. Every year, Old Koloa Town hosts a Plantation Days festival in July, where residents honor the cultural history of the island. Home to several art galleries and dining establishments, you can easily spend a day discovering all this town has to offer.

Oahu may be one of the most well-known islands on Hawaii, which is reflected in it’s common name of ‘The Gathering Place.” O’ahu is home to Honolulu, Hawaii’s state capital. With over twenty beaches, every tourist activity imaginable, vacation rentals and direct flights, it seems impossible that O’ahu would harbor a small town. Despite this, O’ahu harbors a tiny town famous for surfing.

Haleiwa, the Small Town Surfing Paradise

Just thirty miles outside of O’ahu, Haleiwa is home to just 4,500 permanent residents. Surfers from all over the world travel for a chance to surf the beautiful waters, and even more come to watch. Food trucks line the streets along with art galleries and local shops.

He’eia, a Small Town Built on Legend

He’eia , with a population of around 4,500 people, is steeped in local history and determined to preserve it. Home to the He’eia National State Park, the name means ‘Washed out to Sea.” The legend surrounding this small peninsula is that the goddess Haumea asked the demi-god Olopana for permission to raise his grandson, which was given. She named him He’eia. He’eia fell in love with Kaʻōhelo, the sister to the goddesses Pele and Hi’iaka. Kaʻōhelo was transformed into the ‘Ohelo shrub upon her death. The shrub was sacred to many early Hawaiians, with the berries used in offerings to Pele.

In addition to the state park, He’eia offers a unique water experience to visitors. Parts of the bay are shallow due to coral and rock formations. Known as the He’eia Fishpond, the bay offers a valuable resource due to the brackish water. The mixing of fresh and saltwater supports a diverse ecosystem important to fishing.

Arguably Hawaii’s most famous island, Maui has been a vacation destination for decades. Stunning beaches and historic preservation are this island’s claim to fame. It’s Hawaii’s second largest island by land mass, and welcomes thousands of visitors a year.

Just under 3,000 people call Lanai City home. With a higher elevation of 1,700 feet, this small coastal city is sometimes noticeably cooler than other than other cities in Hawaii. Lanai City grew around a pineapple plantation. Today, Lanai is truly a place of solace and quiet in the midst of the busy tourist industry. While Lanai city might be quiet, it doesn’t lack entertainment. Horseback riding, dining, shopping and relatively uncrowded beaches make this city worth a visit.

Whether it’s your first visit to Hawaii or you’re a local, there’s always something new to discover about this storied chain of islands. Be sure to take some time off the beaten path and truly enjoy all Hawaii has to offer.

The post Discover These 8 Smallest Towns in Hawaii appeared first on AZ Animals .

Discover These 8 Smallest Towns in Hawaii

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Japanese Travelers Are Steering Clear Of Hawaii

Once Hawaii's top international tourist market, Japanese visitors are staying away from the islands amid inflated prices and a weak yen

Once Hawaii’s top international tourist market, Japanese visitors are staying away from the islands amid inflated prices and a weak yen

Japanese travel to Hawaii has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, defying the predictions of tourism executives and economists who had forecast the state’s most important international visitor market would rebound as travel restrictions eased.

Heading into Hawaii’s prime holiday travel season, with the Honolulu Marathon sponsored by Japan Airlines less than two weeks away, Hawaii simply isn’t as big in Japan as it once was.

The number of visitors from Japan is roughly half of what it was in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the state’s tourism industry, tourism executives say, and data shows the Japanese visitors who are coming are tightening their belts.

JAL Japan Airlines jet and  Hawaiian Airlines sit at Daniel Inouye International Airport.

“We’re not getting the big influx back that we thought a year ago would happen,” said Jerry Gibson, president of the Hawaii Hotel Alliance . “Eventually it will come back to at least 85%. But it’s not going to be as quick as we thought it would be.”

Much of that has to do with prices: rising U.S. inflation coupled with a weaker yen that makes Hawaii far more expensive for Japanese than it was before the pandemic.

“Hawaii just looks super expensive,” Carl Bonham, executive director of the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization , said during a recent interview with Civil Beat’s editorial board. The cost increase is especially sharp since before the Covid-19 pandemic, he said.

To illustrate, Bonham points to a hypothetical visitor from Japan who had scheduled a trip during Japan’s holiday Golden Week in 2020, only to have to cancel because of Covid-19 travel restrictions. 

“You know exactly how much it was going to cost because you already had it all booked,” Bonham said. “And now you try to book the same thing. You’re talking 60, 70, 80% more expensive. And so that matters.”

Honolulu Sticker Shock

Junji Furusawa was one of those not daunted by the high prices. He arrived Tuesday on a flight from Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport on Tuesday with his wife Sugiko and their grown children. 

tourism down in hawaii

Special Report

This ongoing series explores where Hawaii’s economy is headed and whether it can grow beyond tourism.

The Furusawas were among 2,555 passengers who arrived on flights from Japan on Tuesday. That was about 46% less than the 4,766 who arrived from Japan on the same day in 2019, international passenger data from the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism shows.

But the numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. According to Furusawa, who spoke to Civil Beat through an interpreter, there were more “foreigners” on the plane, or people flying home from Japan, than there were Japanese people flying to Hawaii.

It’s not surprising given the prices, Furusawa said during an interview on Wednesday at Ala Moana Center, where he was shopping with his family. Furusawa said he had been to Hawaii about 25 times, the last visit a decade ago.

And he said he was struck by how much more expensive Hawaii is now that it was back then. A bowl of noodles for lunch at  Marugame Udon  in Waikiki, for instance, cost three times what it costs in Tokyo, he said. 

“The hotel is more than twice the price of 10 years ago,” he said.

The cost of travel to Hawaii was a common theme among visitors interviewed Wednesday. And for good reason.  The weakest Japanese yen in 30 years  means U.S. travelers to Japan can stretch their dollars, but Japanese visitors are at the wrong end of the exchange rate, paying a premium for goods and services that have already increased in price due to inflation. 

It’s not that Japanese tourists are stingy. It’s just that they’re putting the brakes on their spending, while U.S. travelers are spending more. In fact, for the third quarter of 2023, the average Japanese tourist in Hawaii spent $249.50 per day here, compared to $226.20 per day for the average visitor from the U.S. West. Before the pandemic, U.S. West visitors were spending a lot less – $173.90 a day in the third quarter of 2019 – than Japanese visitors, who were spending $239.50 a day then.

tourism down in hawaii

Ko Suzuki, a driver for  Royal Kaila Wedding and Spa , spends his days shuttling Japanese tourists from their hotels to Royal Kaila, where they get dressed up in wedding clothes for photo shoots on the beach. A  basic sunset photo package  sells for $1,169, including 100 photos, a rental wedding dress and tuxedo, bridal hair and makeup, limousine service and other amenities.

While wedding couples might be willing to splurge for once-in-a-lifetime wedding photos, Suzuki said through an interpreter he often finds himself recommending inexpensive local restaurants to couples who say they’re surprised to find places here charging $20 for a bowl of ramen that costs $7 to $10 back home.

But it’s not just prices people cited as concerns. Kaito Kitahara and Kana Jimbo, who are visiting Waikiki for six days from Kanagawa Prefecture near Tokyo, said they would like to see improvements to Honolulu’s bus service, including better signage at bus stops and more payment options.

“It would be nice to be able to use a credit card on the bus,” Kitahara said through an interpreter.

Another issue, Furusawa said, is clearing U.S. customs and immigration, which can take a frustratingly long time. Also raising concerns about custom and immigration, he said, is a recent  high-profile news story  of a social media influencer being turned away from Hawaii as a suspected prostitute.

But Sugiko Furusawa said the family recently saw something encouraging: Hawaii Gov. Josh Green on the news in Japan promising to address immigration issues for visitors during a recent trip to Japan.

In an emailed statement, Green’s office said, “The Immigration Clearance discussions that Governor Green referred to would create a system in Japan where Japanese Visitors would conduct their U.S. Customs and Immigration Clearance prior to flying to Hawaiʻi which would expedite their processing time upon arrival to the State of Hawaiʻi.”

tourism down in hawaii

A more fundamental issue involves a lack of Japanese-speaking service workers in Hawaii, Royal Kaila’s Suzuki said. Many such workers were laid off during the pandemic and never went back to work. The result is some visitors face occasional language barriers that never existed in Hawaii before the pandemic.

About 90% of the company’s customers are Japanese tourists, he said, and he hears their stories when he shuttles them between their hotels and Royal Kaila.

For Royal Kaila, the lack of Japanese-speaking workers like makeup artists, hairdressers and photographers is especially problematic, Suzuki said. While the company handled upward of 18 wedding shoots a day before the pandemic, he said, the company can now do only six to eight.

“There were lots of layoffs during the pandemic,” he said. “We can’t yet deal with all the demands.”

When things will return to pre-pandemic levels is anyone’s guess. 

Gibson said it could be five to seven years.

UHERO’s Bonham said an important part of the story is that U.S. visitors have stepped up to fill the gap left by the missing Japanese visitors. And there’s no sign that economic conditions will change that soon.

“If you went back and sort of looked back at our forecasting behavior over the last year, year and a half, what you would find is that every time we released another forecast, we had to increase our forecast for U.S. visitors, and we had to lower our forecast for Japanese visitors,” he said.

U.S. visitors now make up 75% of the visitors to the state and 75% of the spending in the state, which is about 10 percentage points higher than before the pandemic, he said.

“And meanwhile,” Bonham added, “we keep waiting for the Japanese visitor to come back.”

“ Hawaii’s Changing Economy ” is supported by a grant from the Hawaii Community Foundation as part of its CHANGE Framework project.

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