State must develop new tourism strategy

Soothsayers!!!!!!!!

rex johnson wrote:

wait a minute.
you folks only pay me 250k per year. what do you expect from me? i already told donna kim that i want a few more million. you want tourism to increase? we need to buy the plane tickets for them. you can't expect the hotel industry to offer reduced rooms. that would hurt their profit and they sit on my board.

Eh Rex...when did you move from Waialae Iki?

Hawaii should stop depending on the tourist industry. Period. The reasons are painfully obvious and it's going to get worse.

I would suggest allowing casinos but I hear that even Vegas is getting hit pretty hard from the lack of tourists.

get a tent and camp out on da west side beach. Its free. Stay at your own risk.

As long as oil price are up tourism is going to be down. Better to give better Kamaaina rates and get the local people into the hotels. We can't go anywhere due to high costs of airfare so is the prices were "affordable" we could fill the hotels with local people.

It still is cheaper for air, hotel and meals to go to Las Vegas than vacaation on another island.

alice wrote:

Trouble is, Hawaii has a very tired product. It is not just the bad Bush economy.

I never thought I would ever agree with Alice. Never say Never.

There is no "New Tourism Strategy".

It is just variations on the same old strategy. Targeting different customers, different nations, etc.

The truth is this place isn't all that much fun anymore. Lousy roads, lousy traffic.(What tourist ever going to ride the rail? Stupid!)

Have to watch a 30 minute video before you can go snorkle in Hanauma Bay. No can camp at Mokuleia anymore because the police will not control the homeless. Knock down the restrooms and put in stinking porta-potties. Ugh!

Waianae coast a homeless jungle.

Everybody NIMBY and fighting every solution for anything. Pay 6 cents per bottle on beverages in Waikiki but nowhere to return if one not local. Just money, money, money for politicians. Just cannot figure out how to tax more, more, more. And control everting.

Politicians wasting time to legalize the Segway but no such business has ever been able to make it here. But no fix the big problems.

Hawaii Sierra Club gets more press than anyone and do nothing for anybody but complain, complain, complain.

Rude attitude by many, like the guy who writes on these comments:

"Aloha means get lost."

People read that and think: "I nevah to there."

And the endless victim mindset. It is BIG oil, the RICH corporations that own the hotels, the EVIL taxi companies that want to make a living. Socialism is killing this place and you all don't get it.

A New Tourism Strategy? Pathetic.

It should be obvious why 'we' cannot compete with Detroit to manufacture and export cars and trucks from Hawaii. It cost too much to import the raw materials and then export the finished goods to markets foreign and domestic.

It should be obvious why sugarcane and pineapple cannot support a tax base large enough to employ as many people as the tourist industry can in Hawaii when compared to agriculture. Our competitors throughout the world can grow them less expensively and sell them at a lower cost than 'we' can.

The same reason why local dairies are closing down. The same reason local egg farms are closing down.

The amount of tourists who go to San Francisco or California for that matter, dwarfs the amount of people who come to Hawaii. Same for Las Vegas. Same for Mexican destinations.

We have our 'niche' and it has been good to us over the years. We've managed to get our "piece of the pie" - the tourism pie and 'we' have a very small piece.

The strategy is how to keep our "piece" and prevent it from shrinking when the cost of fuel makes it hard for people to travel to islands in the middle of the Pacific.

I like the idea of opening up China. A fresh emerging market with newly accumulated wealth.

I can tell by the postings, both repeat visitors and Hawaii residents have become jaded and cynical to tourism. China and Korea is a new market for Hawaii whose people have never been here in large enough numbers to make a difference, is the way to replace "mature" markets who think Hawaii is passe' or overpriced.

There is no discount travelling to hawaii even for locals the price in paradise is too high to really enjoy things. Funny we in hawaii cannot afford to travel between the island any more. It is still cheaper to spend a week in vegas from hawaii than it is to vist another island and stay at a hotel for a week. A travel subsidy probably would entice travellers comming here on any airline or vacation package but only the people already planning to come would initially take advantage of any offers....Most people plan vacations 3-6 months down the road to arrange work time off and etc. Last minute visitors are mostly from california as prices are comparable. Another airline would really make a difference than the monopoly in prices we currently suffer with.

Hawaii economics goes plan A is tourism, plan B is tourism, hah W.T.F!, it's time to change and bring in legal gambling establishments. Yes, casino's need to a part of Hawaii's attraction for tourism dollars...if gambling can't be legal in Hawaii, then Hawaii's law makers past and present should be banned from ever going to a gambling establishment (i.e. casinos in Las Vegas, Gulfport, Atlantic City, etc.) for any reason whatsoever...cheya

A Fish Out of H2O wrote:

Number 1. Lower the rates of hotel rooms.
Number 2. Restaurants charge too much, must have larger portions. Extra value meals.
Number 3. Gasoline is at an all time high. Coupons for tourist are welcomed.
Number 4. Spead the aloha spirit,

Great ideas. Don't you just wonder if common sense ideas are aired at some of these meetings? I read where they want rich mainlanders to vacation in Hawaii. Well, it is us middle class folks who spend money over there, too. Don't we matter? And another thing, too many chain type eateries..where is Old Hawaii. That is why people would go there in the first place!

Mahu wrote:

It should be obvious why 'we' cannot compete with Detroit to manufacture and export cars and trucks from Hawaii. It cost too much to import the raw materials and then export the finished goods to markets foreign and domestic.
It should be obvious why sugarcane and pineapple cannot support a tax base large enough to employ as many people as the tourist industry can in Hawaii when compared to agriculture. Our competitors throughout the world can grow them less expensively and sell them at a lower cost than 'we' can.
The same reason why local dairies are closing down. The same reason local egg farms are closing down.
The amount of tourists who go to San Francisco or California for that matter, dwarfs the amount of people who come to Hawaii. Same for Las Vegas. Same for Mexican destinations.
We have our 'niche' and it has been good to us over the years. We've managed to get our "piece of the pie" - the tourism pie and 'we' have a very small piece.
The strategy is how to keep our "piece" and prevent it from shrinking when the cost of fuel makes it hard for people to travel to islands in the middle of the Pacific.

Actually Detroit imports most of its' parts and the materials from which they are made. It is far cheaper to ship by water than by road or rail. Hawaii is unique and there are a number of vehicular designs which would work exceedingly well here and would likely result in worldwide export if they were made here.
Agricultural diversity would be both logical and self supporting if land were available to the many local residents with farming ability and experience.
Tourism and the huge population that it exposes this tiny landmass to is toxic to Hawaii's future. The paving of Paradise is destroying it's soul. Just as the Hawaiian kapuna died off from various diseases, modern diseases are carried by various populations to which Hawaii is currently being exposed. So far we have been fairly lucky but that may change with changing tourist populations. Hawaii's inherent uniqueness is capable of supporting a multitude of industries. Through serendipity and the mother of invention, Hawaii has an infinite number of directions that could be taken. Hawaii's main problems are tourism and the cost of housing. The defeatist notion that Hawaii's population must be enslaved to tourism imprisons a Renaissance of Island resourcefulness.