Aloha.
In the height of the summer, the paradisiacal yet hellish (buy here) Hawaiian islands received a surge from mainland tourists breaking free from a year of lockdown. The influx, however, coincided with the new and nasty Covid-19 Delta variant and Hawaiian officials, including Governor David Ige, worried that the infrastructure could not handle the numbers so asked those mainland tourists to slow their roll.
“Reduce travel to Hawaii to essential business activities only.”
Woke locals, or “woke-als” seeing an opportunity, piggybacked on the Governor’s request declaring that tourism contributed to cultural genocide in Hawaii by “perpetuating harmful tropes like hyper-sexualized hula girls or doormat natives” etc.
Well, the tourists listened but according to a new Wall Street Journal expose, listened too well.
Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism show that passenger counts in recent weeks are down 30%, hotels are seeing cancellations every day, with 50% occupancy where it should be 75% to 80%, and hospitality workers are losing their full-time jobs, only being offered gigs on a week-to-week basis.
Fear is setting in that, unless the state authorities change their messaging, winter tourism will be decimated leaving many of the island’s residents in true financial turmoil.
On the plus side, colonized narratives redefining aloha will revert to previous meanings.
A win, all told.
nup, you?
Not to mention the Honolulu mayor just started a vaccine passport for a 60 day trial. Restaurants are withering.
You reap what you sow…… Enjoy poverty
I moved out of Oahu last week after living and working there for the last 5 years. I have lived in 3 different states in the US and a few different countries and I can guarantee I never seen so much racism and hate like in Hawaii, I never complained about it I always knew what I was signing for from the day I moved there and somehow I got a few super good paid tipped jobs in the hotels I used to work when there was international tourists back in the days that I believe made me stay. In the last 6 months stuff got really scary, Hawaii has a separatist group that hide behind “non-profit” LA hui foundation, Aloha Harvest etc… its a mix of food bank for their numerous food drives (where locals line up with their brand new lifted up 60k Tacomas to get free groceries) In reality these groups get a lot of money from government and private companies as “donations”, they are the people that promote hate against tourists or anyone they think does not belong to their local group, they use their manifestations and social media rants to dissipate hate speech and sure that does get to the higher levels of politicians and o large part of the population, I think true Hawaiians have the right to be really mad but those are the people that pay us or used to pay us directly or indirectly there is no plan b for jobs in Hawaii the kingdom days are over and turning violent like they already are towards tourists is not gonna help to pay their mortgages and truck payments.
Note to Chas: Hawaii is a military base disguised as tourist destination. If I were you I’d get DR to dig into this further and bring in his butt buddy Peter McGuire. Between those two you could really get to the bottom of what makes Hawaii tick. Aloha!
Just got home from dinner and drinks at the hotels. Lady bartender was so happy to see locals coming in again now that the tourists that took advantage of the cheap flights beat it back to wherever. Was a different tourist crowd than normal super rude and disrespectful.
‘But then who voted those people in.’ – exactly. And we keep electing money into power year after year. Blows my mind….
Bitch Grit
Wow Chas your deep stats from WSJ really reflect all the hard research you’ve done!
The destructive effects of overtourism and its attendant local subjugation is not just a Hawaii thing. It’s a global problem.
“Extractive tourism” is a term first coined by academic Vijay Kolinjivadi, a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Development Policy at the University of Antwerp, and goes beyond the basic interpretation of overtourism as a congestion caused by travelers flocking to tourism hotspots.
The phrase encompasses the destructive impact of mass tourism on local communities, indigenous or not.
Here’s a short crib from his writing:
The tourism industry, and the governments that welcome foreign revenue, thrive on the argument that local livelihoods depend on tourism and insinuate that millions of people will be reduced to abject poverty without it.
But a closer examination of how large-scale tourism clusters function reveals who the true winners and losers of mass tourism are.
Like a gold rush to the latest discovery of untapped ores, a panoply of hotel chains, foreign tour operators, online booking agencies, airlines, real estate speculators and multinational construction companies quickly rush to capitalise on any curiosity that a visitor might have towards any site of historical or natural value.
Government officials acquiesce to mega-tourism projects due to large kickbacks and pass regulations to facilitate them under the promises of economic growth. These actions all too often supersede the sovereignty of communities in terms of their traditions and historical relations to sites of historical or natural significance. As a result, local people often lose control of their land and community development and see little benefit from employment in exploitative low-paying jobs with long hours and minimal or no provision of social benefits.
Instead, most of the wealth extracted from the tourist “mine site” flows into multinational conglomerates which own travel agencies, hotels, airlines, cruise ships and even local commercial retail shops and whose tentacles extend to major tourist hotspots across the world.
it’s a long dick in the guts alright
If the local communities and indigenous didn’t sell off their land to the big multinational conglomerates there would be no issue in the first place.
I hear you. Me, I took my first excursion thru TJ in 1978. It was a shithole then, and it still is now.
Hopefully this “cultural genocide” lowers the room rates at my favorite spot on Kauai.
Right now, for Feb ’22, the rate is $700+/night with a five night minimum.
Sounds like they are going full “f*ck the Haoles.”
It’s a ghost town over here, just how we like it!
It was a ghost town last February, also. Both the Hyatt and Sheraton being closed was beyond bizarre.
Yeah it’s busier than that but still pretty quiet. Was crazy busy over the summer though…
The worst part of last winter was everyone being unemployed so the surf was packed!
Yup…we were up at Pipe for the Valentine’s Swell and it was a mad house. But a good mad house if that makes sense.
Waikiki on the other hand was bizarrely quiet…it was actually a little disconcerting and I didn’t enjoy it.
But Kauai is always nice…crowded or not. One of my favorite restaurants was closed but we adapted.
The waves are so fickle here either everyone is on it and it’s a mad house, or nobody is around at all and you’re worried about sharks.
All the restaurants are back open now, the ones that survived the cull anyway. Kintaros is still not finished unfortunately.
Is Hamura’s still open?
It sure is!
Woohoo!
I figured this would benefit a few lucky individuals.
Tijuana Tropes not withstanding, it’s a vibrant city known for art, design, and culinary pleasures. (Tijuana Sewage Sloughs not in Mex)
While the actual slough is not in Mexico I am pretty sure 90% of the sewage and other pollutants are from Mexico. The sharks love it!
Notable enforcers are now openly asking for money on social media from hip companies in exchange for……art? T-shirts? Not exactly a business plan I would invest in, but I’m no tech mogul. I just hope the pasty white man can redeem himself and continue the trickle down from his income to the needy.
What’s being enforced, anymore?
There is no Quik/Bong/Curl money, anymore.
Volcom is rumored to be selling the houses.
I’ve even read in “Free Surf” where veteran locals are complaining that groms are calling them off waves at Pipe.
It might be time for actual, gainful employment.
Would have been nice if Chas’ had actually investigated those volcom rumors. They’re total bs.
Do we know how/where the rumor started?
Considering the price of Hawaii real estate it wouldn’t surprise me if they really did consider selling.
Still trying to figure out how I can eat this cake and have it too.
Tijuana.
The Tijuana style tacos taste better in Tijuana than the Tijuana style tacos just over the border. Strange but true.