Are visitors not well liked in Kona? (coupons, purchasing)

[KaraBenNemsi]

Why would tourists not be welcomed in Kona? The whole district lives by tourist dollars and they are being treated accordingly. There maybe a lazy waiter in a restaurant, a rushed tour guide, a rude person snatching your parking spot, but there's certainly no hostile behavior.

[otterprods]

Originally Posted by Kelly4Sun

Aloha Everyone!

I was just curious. I heard that the locals in Kona, on The Big Island don't care too much for visitors. From what I've heard they don't mind if you hang out near and around the tourist areas, but you go beyond that and it's a no no. Is there much truth to this? or is this just someone visiting that has no Aloha themselves?

Mahalo,
Kelly4Sun

Hi Kelly, of course all people are different, but for a good object lesson on how visitors are sometimes viewed/treated by 'locals' see the thread called 'New Restaurants in Kona town', specifically: http://www.city-data.com/forum/big-i...kona-town.html

It's not exactly hatefulness, but just like in many places that are very heavily touristed, the locals sometimes lose patience with tourists and tend to chuckle at their ignorance in public and outright insult them in private.

As far as going beyond tourist areas, that is tolerated well enough, but you want to make sure you're not on anyone's private property or sacred reserve, which is just common sense, of course. Beyond that, you should be respectful of peoples' space and use due caution and all, but if you're in a public area you have the right to do as you please within lawful limits. If people get bugged by your mere presence, that's their problem. The only true Hawaiian natives are the rocks. (and yes I know about the nene and the hoary bat... which both had to fly there at some point, no doubt)

[barkomatic]

I visited Kona in February and didn't have any problems with local people being rude. In fact, a few of them went out of their way to talk to us and provide suggestions on where to go. I did notice a strong sense of local pride which one has to be sensitive to. As in all popular places, there seems to be a resentment toward wealthy outsiders coming into an area and taking the best of everything while many lifelong residents don't live so well. We have that issue in NYC as well--though money has always been king here.

[willowkim]

We've been in Kona for 4 months and are pretty much assumed to be tourists a lot, unless they see our cars or the fact that we're not using hotel-issue striped towels! :-D We have experienced totally normal life here -- some people wonderful, kind, full of aloha, some people indifferent (cashiers at downtown KTA, LOL!), once or twice I've noticed what was perhaps a little bit of the stink eye, just a look... or maybe they were just having a bad day, who knows? This is just the same as anywhere I've ever lived, and I've lived quite a few places!

We've been to tons of beaches, local spots and tourist spots, have met all kinds of people. Kindness begets kindness! We are nice and respectful, low-key, and we've never had any issues anywhere on the island. That said, we aren't idiots, we leave Magic's when the sun goes down and the beer comes out, we don't try to surf at Banyans (not that we surf anyway), we don't walk through sacred places and ignore the signs. Just yesterday someone came over to buy something from Craigslist, an older local guy, and stood in my driveway and talked story for half an hour. Pretty cool.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by Kelly4Sun

Aloha Everyone!

I was just curious. I heard that the locals in Kona, on The Big Island don't care too much for visitors. From what I've heard they don't mind if you hang out near and around the tourist areas, but you go beyond that and it's a no no. Is there much truth to this? or is this just someone visiting that has no Aloha themselves?

Mahalo,
Kelly4Sun

Kona felt like one really large tourist area.

It seems like you'd really have to work hard to get away from the tourists in that area. So, I'd imagine if you worked that hard to get away from them, you'd be in some far off inland corner among people who were equally tired of tourists.

Perhaps some self-fulfilling prophecy would occur there in that unique spot.

[mdand3boys]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

Kona felt like one really large tourist area..

Ding!

Which is the reason why so many people that live on da udda side, no like Kona...

(and don't even mention the traffic!)

[smarino]

What you heard is pretty much what we experienced (lived on BI 20 years). There is less overt racism on the Hilo side, but it is sure in effect on both sides! Generally, it's worse on the Kona side, and other people can tell you why. To me it's pretty self evident why it's like that (in the locals minds anyway). Or, let's put it this way. How would you feel if you saw a bunch of generally rich, rude, and bossy outsiders come over and buy up a lot of the really primo land, then drive the cost of housing up so high that you couldn't afford to live there anymore? We moved to Florida, and to a certain extent the same dynamic is in effect here. A lot of the privileged, monied, loud Yankees come down here and mess up the local Southern culture w/ what they brought w/ them, then drive up the price of real estate to an unrealistic level. What happens next is a lesson in how absurd life can be, because after a while the new transplants start grousing about all the folks from Jersey coming down and messing it up for them too. As if!

[Kaiminani]

You guys see that southpark episode where they totally ripped on the kama'aina discounts and recent transplants going more native than native?

[CyberCity]

Yeah, that South Park episode is pretty funny. And I liked the part about the Coco Palms Hotel, but did have to explain to the teens why it was so funny, which has been closed their entire lifetime.

[otterprods]

Originally Posted by Kaiminani

You guys see that southpark episode where they totally ripped on the kama'aina discounts and recent transplants going more native than native?

No. I missed it but it sounds finny. Please summarize. (I don't feel like watching South Park right now, even though they're technically my CO homeez) The same thing happens here, especially in the high country, but it seems different because there are so few 'natives' and people are a little less possessive of 'their' state. Still, you see the native license plates out on the road, and driving around with either TX or CA plates will get you some stink eye. (I know because I was a CA transplant when I moved here)