Paradise Lost - The Damage Done by the Tourism Industry in Hawai'i
For decades, people from the mainland U.S. and abroad have seen Hawai’i as an island paradise of beautiful beaches, local generosity, and stunning vistas. This has led to a massive tourist industry across almost all of the Hawaiian Islands which sees millions of visitors every year flock to its shores to pour money into pursuing their island fantasies. However, this vision of Hawai’i has a dark undercurrent — decades of colonialism and resource extraction have resulted in economic, ecological, and cultural damage done to the people and land of Hawai’i. Despite claims of promoting the well-being and way of life of the Hawaiian people, the tourism industry largely functions to extract the value of the land and labor of the people.
To provide context for analysis of the harmful effects of tourism on Hawai’i, it is important to discuss the power of colonial influence on the islands. Before annexation by the U.S., the Kingdom of Hawai’i was a sovereign nation-state globally recognized by the international community since the 1800s under the authority of a monarch (PBS, 2022). However, a governmental takeover backed by Western influences forced King Kalākaua to sign a new constitution which granted voting rights only to American, European, and land-owning Hawaiians who had lived in Hawai’i for three years (PBS, 2022). At this point in time, most Native Hawaiians were not landowners — at least not in a manner recognized by the new constitution. This law, dubbed the Bayonet Constitution, resulted in decades of colonial interference and coercion culminating with the forced abdication of the last queen of Hawai’i, Queen Liliʻuokalani. Thus, outside business interests rose as the dominant force in Hawai’i in regards to the control of land and policy through the disenfranchisement of local people.
Big agriculture business owners and plantation owners moved Hawaiian land from subsistence farming, where farmers grew crops to provide food and other raw materials for community use, to cash crop plantations in order to produce exportable, sellable goods (Mei-Singh, 2021). Such a shift in agricultural production from subsistence to specialization created swathes of land which were used not to produce resources for the survival of Hawaiian communities, but for goods to provide profit for out-of-state business owners. In the later 20th century, use of the land would once again shift from large agricultural cash crops to focus on tourism (Stevens, 2018). The trend of using the land and local labor for the production of goods and industries reliant upon out-of-state buyers for economic sustainability is a trend that the tourism industry continues today, at the expense of the economic sustainability of the Hawaiian people.
Today, the tourism industry extracts great profit from the land and labor of Hawai’i, to the economic detriment of the Native Hawaiian and local populations. Tourism generates billions of dollars a year for the Hawaiian economy, spurring land development and resort construction funded by shareholders and American-Japanese investments (Darowski et. Al, 2007). In fact, tourism is considered to be a resource to be tapped, used, and “exported” to generate income for the State [of Hawai’i] (Cristini et. Al, 2013). The commonly held and advertised belief is that tourism helps Native Hawaiians by boosting their economy, improving standards of life for the people who live on the islands. Years of efforts by advertising agencies, multinational land owners, and foreign investors have propagated the idea of Hawai’i as an island paradise which requires tourism in order to function economically by providing jobs and revenue for the state (Trask, 2000). However, the economic gains generated by the tourism industry does not trickle down to the Native Hawaiian people, not in a way which allows Native Hawaiians to subsist on their own land.
While billions are made by the hotel, resort, and tourism industries across the islands, it becomes less and less feasible for Native Hawaiians to afford living on their own land. The fantastical appeal of Hawai’i as advertised by tourism has resulted in large land buyouts by the wealthy, who see the land as prime real estate with appreciable market value. Buying up the land to resell and rent out to tourists drives up the rent prices for the locals who have lived in these communities for years, often to levels they can’t afford. Look no further for an example of the disparity between the theory and the real effect of tourism than the fact that the average income of Native Hawaiians is $36,989 while the median price of a home is above $1,000,000 (Pallet-Wiesel, 2022). Even Airbnbs aren’t exempt from responsibility in regards to rising land and home prices — in 2021, it was largely out-of-state buyers purchasing multiple homes for rent through Airbnb, displacing locals and driving up rent prices in order to extract value from Hawaiian real estate (Harlow, 2021). According to a 2022 report by the O’ahu Continuum of Care, it is Native Hawaiians that make up the largest percentage of the unhoused population, and that the two leading causes of houselessness are the loss of a job and inability to pay rent, with Native Hawaiians 265% more likely to be unhoused. This is a direct consequence of the tourism industry which continually exports the fantasy of Hawai’i, attracting landlords and land developers whose activity raises the price of living to an unaffordable level for Native Hawaiians. Further complicating the situation for locals is that those who control the tourism industry and its policies — largely American and Japanese business interests— exclude Native Hawaiians from both decision making and the distribution of wealth generated by tourism (Pallet-Wiesel, 2022). Such exclusion strips Native Hawaiians of the ability to make decisions that might benefit and protect them more equitably.
There are many who would argue that the tourism industry, for all its economic faults, provides jobs and boosts the economy by providing income for local businesses as tourism provides potential customers. While technically true, a deeper look reveals a more complicated truth. Though the various tourism-related industries of Hawai’i largely employ Native Hawaiians, they most often employ them in the lowest-paying service sector jobs that leave them unable to afford the inflated cost of living (Trask, 2000). With tourists outnumbering Native Hawaiians many times over, this creates a local indigenous minority who work the service industry jobs and power the tourism industry with labor, but who are scarcely able to afford rent on their traditional land. Furthermore, while tourism can drive customers to local businesses, this solution ignores a larger systemic issue — the overspecialization of Hawaiian land for tourism hinders diversification of their economy, further reinforcing a reliance on the tourism industry for jobs and economic stability for Native Hawaiians (Pallet-Wiesel, 2022). Even for a responsible tourist, supporting local businesses on an individual level can only do so much to alleviate the larger systemic issue powered by continued tourism to Hawai’i.
Ecologically, the tourism industry consistently creates problems of sustainability and environmental degradation for the land of Hawai’i. Housing an ecology with many endangered flora and fauna, the environment of Hawai’i is constantly tested by land development and tourists themselves. Native Hawaiians have protested for years over the treatment of the natural environment by tourists, who frequently overcrowd, litter, and interfere with local wildlife (Pallet-Wiesel, 2022). Further adding to the environmental degradation is the overdevelopment of land and the divisions of water. Hotel and resort complexes by far consume the most water on the islands, with the tourism industry on the Big Island consuming 44.7% of the water (Chen, 2022). Residents on almost all of the islands of Hawai’i have had to comply with mandated water restrictions, especially in the face of water shortages (Chen, 2022). Tourists are largely exempt from these measures. In 2022, it was revealed that the U.S. Navy was responsible for a jet fuel leak into the water supply at Red Hill in Honolulu, O’ahu (Chen, 2022). Despite the vast water shortages brought on by the crisis, it is residents who are mandated to reduce water use or face fines while the tourism industry is still allowed to consume what little water remains. According to O’ahu water protector Healani Sonoda-Pale, there has been no cutback on the water usages of hotels and resorts — they are free to use the water to power hotel amenities, while the Native Hawaiians who man the industry are forced to cut back on their water usage at home (Chen, 2022). Thus, it can be seen through these recent examples that the tourism industry extracts the value from the natural resources of the islands, at the expense of the Native Hawaiians who are forced to bear the burden of increasing environmental degradation.
On a tangible level, the tourism industry also profits off of the commodification and exportation of the Native Hawaiian culture. Going hand-in-hand with the degradation of the environment, the sacred and culturally important sites of Native Hawaiians are often bulldozed and paved over to make room for tourist sites or repackaged versions of their original native configurations (Stevens, 2018). Further adding to this problem of cultural commodification is that even though the performers and entertainers for many tourist attractions are Native Hawaiian, the presentation is not controlled by Hawaiians themselves — the owners and managers are often non-Natives, and the shows are more often a watered down and culturally offensive presentation than a genuine display of Hawaiian culture (Trask, 2000). A market of Hawaiian-themed goods circulated through the tourism industry in airports and tourist attractions throughout the islands speak to a culture that has been made marketable and consumable to the traveler, to the tourist. Though the marketing of the Native Hawaiian culture has been an important factor in drawing tourists to the islands and generating profit, the Native Hawaiian people have been historically disempowered and ignored in conversations regarding economic, political, and even cultural protections for their own culture and community.
Tourism as an industry in Hawai’i has long been surrounded by myths propagated to justify the continued extraction of wealth from the land, the labor, and the culture of the Native Hawaiian people. Through analysis of Hawai’i’s history of occupation, resource inequality, ecological deterioration, and the commodification of Native Hawaiian culture, it is made evident that the tourism industry functions as a method of wealth extraction without providing benefits to the Native Hawaiians on whose land the industry profits.
Work Cited
Chen, A. X. (2022, May 13). In Hawaii, water is life-and it's in Danger. Atmos. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://atmos.earth/hawaii-water-crisis-tourism-navy/
Cristini, L., Cox, L.J., Konan, D.E., & Eversole, D.N. (2013). CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE VISITOR INDUSTRY: People , Place , Culture , and the Hawai‘i Experience.
Harlow, C. (2021, August 11). More vacation rentals in Hawaii mean needed revenue and upset neighbors. Marketplace. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://www.marketplace.org/2021/08/11/more-vacation-rentals-in-hawaii-mean-needed-revenue-and-upset-neighbors/
Mei-Singh, L. (2021, June 17). Routed through water: Decolonial ecologies on the Wai'anae Coast of hawai'i. THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://thefunambulist.net/magazine/decolonial-ecologies/routed-through-water-decolonial-ecologies-on-the-waianae-coast-of-hawaii
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Stevens, F. (2018). Perspectives on the Sociocultural Consequences of Mass Tourism on Native Hawaiians (thesis). Wageningen University, Gelderland.
Trask, H.-K. (2000, March 1). Tourism and the prostitution of Hawaiian culture. Cultural Survival . Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/tourism-and-prostitution-hawaiian-culture
