Gov. David Ige’s board picks grilled on how they would change Hawaii tourism

A Senate committee on Wednesday advanced Gov. David Ige’s five nominees to the fill the board of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, but not before grilling them about how they planned to change the nature of tourism in Hawaii as residents express dread at the return of visitors to pre-pandemic levels.

Members of the Senate Committee on Energy, Economic Development and Tourism questioned the nominees about what the future of tourism should look like in Hawaii, how many tourists the state should welcome a year and how they might corral visitors into dense tourism hot spots like Waikiki so they don’t wander out into other areas of the islands and irritate locals.

The nominees tactfully acknowledged the growing frustration toward tourism in the islands, though struggled to define an acceptable number of visitors or suggest ways in which the HTA board might limit tourists. After all, it is HTA’s role to market the islands to visitors.

“I think we need to have more responsible tourism,” said Sherry Menor- McNamara, one of Ige’s picks for the tourism board and the president and CEO of the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce. In terms of tourism numbers, she said it was more about the return on investment, not just economically, but in terms of the impact on the local community. She said she couldn’t suggest an ideal number.

Sen. Gil Riviere (D-Heeia- Laie-Waialua) pushed back.

“So would you say OK, if the numbers just end up a million, a million, a million each year? Suddenly we’re at 20 million. We don’t have the facilities,” he said. “People are throwing bricks at tourists. It could get really ugly if numbers grew. So are you suggesting that we just let the market determine the right number of visitors, or do we affirmatively try to manage that expectation?”

Menor-McNamara said the issue needed to “be looked at collectively” among stakeholders” and said that she agreed that there needs to be “more managed and responsible tourism.”

Sen. Glenn Wakai (D- Kalihi-Salt Lake-Aliamanu), who chairs the the Senate committee, jumped in to say it wasn’t about the number of tourists, but where they’re going. He said that 20 million might be OK, so long as they stay in the right places.

“It’s when they show up in Lanikai, when they show up in Haleiwa and go to places where they generally aren’t welcomed as tourists, that’s when we get the problem,” he said. “If we shuttle these folks to the right places then we all benefit from an economic standpoint as well as from a, ‘Don’t come into my area, tourist, because you’re kind of in the wrong place,’ mentality.”

Hawaii’s visitor numbers have grown dramatically over the decades from just a half million in the 1960s. In 2005, 8 million people visited Hawaii. That figure surged to a record 10.4 million in 2019. The subsequent shutdown in tourism last year due to the coronavirus pandemic devastated Hawaii’s economy, landing thousands on the unemployment rolls. But residents were suddenly experiencing what the state’s beaches, hiking trails, parks and roads are like when they aren’t clogged with tourists. And as visitors start to return, there are signs that they aren’t so welcome.

On Maui this past weekend, local residents staged a “Take back the beach” protest on west Maui, demanding limits on tourism. Meanwhile, state legislators and council members are scrambling to find strategies to limit the ill effects of tourism, such as cracking down on illegal tour bus activity and increasing resident parking at beach parks.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority is also in the political crosshairs with lawmakers threatening to slash its budget this year.

The sense of pressure was on display during Wednesday’s hearing as lawmakers stressed that the tourism floodgates were quickly opening.

Wakai said that HTA has long pointed to goals such as more responsible and “high quality” tourists and better engagement with locals in its tourism plans, but little has come of it.

David Arakawa, executive director of the Land Use Research Foundation, which lobbies on behalf of developers, who is being appointed to another term on the HTA board, acknowledged the concern.

“We feel the urgency and concerns that you have expressed,” he said. “We know that we have to move forward and we need to move forward quickly, and we can’t sit on this stuff.”

Ige’s other nominees to the 12-member board include Dylan Ching, a restaurant operator; Sig Zane, a Hilo fashion designer and Keith “Keone” Downing, a surf shop owner.

The Senate committee unanimously voted in favor of all of the nominees, who will now face a vote before the full Senate.