Well, this paints an unpleasant picture, eh? (Hana: real estate, hotels)

[xPlorer48]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

I'm glad we made that trip in 2013, it was a beautiful, a real fun day, with very little traffic. It's just like all of the other major attractions, they get discovered, become popular, and are never the same again. Look at Yosemite, requiring reservations now, Yellowstone, and Disneyland.

Me, too. We were on Maui and Oahu for our daughter’s gymnastics meets in 2002. We were the only ones on the Hana Highway.

Last Thursday, we took the North Cascades Highway (20) to eastern Washington for a week long camping trip. We noticed more vehicles than ever on the highway by hiking trails. Usually, no one is parked along 20 for a trailhead. The Diablo Vista parking lot was packed. We talked to a NPS employee who said she noticed the same and had no answers. A weekend, yes, with the beautiful fall weather but Thursday? Ditto, yesterday on our return home: so many RVs and vehicles heading over the pass to get to the sunny side as buckets of rain are predicted for thix weekend.

[Futuremauian]

Originally Posted by thedwightguy

I remember when my brother babysat a 49 foot blue water schooner in K. Bay back in the mid-seventies there was one veg. rest. and one reg. restaurant, both closed early. Just thinking that the island has a WALMART, COSTCO, AND TARGET as a "goal" for retail shopping makes me completely SHUDDER. The END must be near. Repent.

For those of us who live here year-round and work regular jobs, we don't have time to fish and forage for every meal. I am glad we have these choices and have little interest in what vacationers think we should or should not have.

In any event, you would be in the minority. Those stores are constantly filled with tourists.

SHUDDER away!

[trinity1111]

Originally Posted by Arktikos

Wow, that's really bad. When you say "instead of 20 minutes", how many years ago did it only take 20 minutes?

Well, back in the 80's it would take 20 minutes....But, I was comparing traffic this year to the 2020 lockdown, which was reminiscent of the 80's on Maui.

[Tulemutt]

And today’s news feed pops in with this:

Price of paradise may rise for Hawaii visitors; counties looking to implement fees, reservations, beach closures
https://www.khon2.com/local-news/pri...each-closures/

Some of what the article speaks to has recently been *forumed* here. And the article notes some restrictions and expenses considered will be for visitors not residents. Still, the direction speaks to the topic of generally increasing congestion and burden. I have no solutions to suggests. Just feelings of turning away from my deep affections.

[GoldKona]

Originally Posted by Arktikos

And just think, the Canadians will be returning come November!

Build the wall! Build the wall!

[hotzcatz]

At this point, I'd guess there's a lot less folks working in the tourist industry. Friend of mine working at a hotel said they're still way understaffed and nobody is applying for the jobs. When the hotels shut from Covid, the workers found other things to do and that's a good thing, IMHO. We could use some tourism, but not as much as we've had the past few years.


Has anyone done a study of how much of the tourist money actually stays in Hawaii? Yeah, they rent a hotel room, but who owns the hotel? How much do the hotel workers get paid? The hotel sits on the beach, too, where we can't build houses let alone afford them.


On Maui, the hotels get the water and the farmers don't.


How much of the rental car money stays on the islands?


Why are we even putting up with tourists anyway? If we had local owned hotels, local owned rental car companies, etc., etc., then the money the tourists spend would stick around, but it all pretty much vanishes off island. It's not so much the tourists themselves as the non-locally owned tourist infrastructure which is a large part of the problem. It's one thing to put up with tourists if we get the benefit from them, but entirely another thing if it's to increase the wealth of non-Hawaii corporations.


As things deteriorate for the tourist's 'Hawaiian Vacation', there will hopefully be less of them.

[Arktikos]

^
We hear the same questions and complaints in Alaska. Valid concerns, no doubt. 20% of our City budget is derived from taxes levied on the Cruise lines, or so I've heard. Yet, many of the businesses benefiting from tourism dollars are not locally owned.

Every rent a car in Hawaii is heavily taxed, every hotel room is taxed.

Is the water company on Maui locally owned or not?

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Has anyone done a study of how much of the tourist money actually stays in Hawaii?

Where do you think it goes? I've never understood that line of thinking. If I bought the Sheraton Waikiki would that make things any different? Plenty of "local" companies could afford the major hotels - they don't because the hotel industry has some of the worst margins out of any industry. They can park that money elsewhere and make more money.

Anyway, with the hotels currently losing millions (some individual hotels losing over a million/month) it is all a moot point. Where do you think that money is coming from?

Hawaii hotels in 2021 will lose out on nearly $1.2 Billion in business travel where the real money is made. 20,000 hotel jobs have been lost. Guess who is helping fund those workers - the taxpayers.

I'd rather have them working - than not.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by whtviper1

Where do you think it goes? I've never understood that line of thinking. If I bought the Sheraton Waikiki would that make things any different? Plenty of "local" companies could afford the major hotels - they don't because the hotel industry has some of the worst margins out of any industry. They can park that money elsewhere and make more money.

Anyway, with the hotels currently losing millions (some individual hotels losing over a million/month) it is all a moot point. Where do you think that money is coming from?

Hawaii hotels in 2021 will lose out on nearly $1.2 Billion in business travel where the real money is made. 20,000 hotel jobs have been lost. Guess who is helping fund those workers - the taxpayers.

I'd rather have them working - than not.

Well, wait a minute. Agreed about the amount that directly supports local employment, obviously. But the argument that “hotels have some of the worst margins …” is spurious. At least. Because: regardless of margins, hotels flourish around the world making more than a ton of money for ownership … or they wouldn't exist. Travel would be all B&B and campgrounds. Apparently ownership is happy “parking” their money in their hotels, or … they wouldn’t. Again, if the hotel business sucks so bad, why are they willing to “lose over a million a month …” waiting for tourism to return better occupancy?

I don’t know the numbers for commercial vs local rentals in the Cook Islands. But local rentals / hostings are clearly very high. Similarly true for many many other vacation destinations. So, perhaps there’s something to be said for more local ownership in the mix.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

Well, wait a minute. Agreed about the amount that directly supports local employment, obviously. But the argument that “hotels have some of the worst margins …” is spurious. At least. Because: regardless of margins, hotels flourish around the world making more than a ton of money for ownership … or they wouldn't exist.

https://www.hospitalitynet.org/opinion/4096272.html