Tourism deemed a web optimistic by resident sentiment survey

According to a survey by the Hawaii Tourism Authority, despite its troubles, Hawaiian residents believe tourism is generally positive for the state.

The HTA poll in Spring 2021 found that more than 75% of residents believe tourism is “worth the industry-related problems,” given the $ 18 billion visitors spend in Hawaii in 2019.

Despite the massive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the visitor industry last year, this generally positive mood does not differ noticeably from the results of the 2020 HTA survey.

In the spring survey, residents between 18 and 32 years of age were most likely to have a negative opinion about tourism, with 30% of respondents in this age group believing that the disadvantages of tourism outweigh the advantages. For the most part, the number of years they spent in the state didn’t matter – although people who lived in Hawaii for less than a year were more likely to disapprove of tourism, only 19 out of 1,779 respondents fell into this demographic and were statistical not significant.

Despite the general acceptance of tourism, respondents were critical of more specific aspects of the industry. The number of respondents who agree with certain statements about tourism such as “Tourism creates many well-paid jobs for the residents” or “Tourism improves the quality of life for the residents” has decreased since last year.

In addition, across all islands, a majority of respondents believe that insufficient efforts are being made to balance the economic benefits of tourism with the quality of life for residents, nor do they believe that an island is particularly good at tourism managed.

And while the vast majority of respondents believe the state has a responsibility to educate visitors about the Malama Islands, the majority also believe that tourism does not preserve or authentically present Hawaiian native culture.

For the most part, the respondents reacted similarly to one another on all islands. However, respondents on the Big Island appeared to be the most pro-development, with a larger percentage of respondents disagreeing with suggestions to stop building more hotels, condominiums or legal vacation rentals than any other island.