Hawaii residents want better-managed tourism.

That is the central lesson from our April 2021 statewide survey of 700 Hawaii residents by the University of Hawaii Public Policy Center. Although the results show split opinions on how the state should organize itself for effective “destination management” planning, it is clear that the majority of residents want Hawaii to regulate tourism more than other industries. And this requires careful government attention.

As we write, Gov. David Ige has not yet signed or vetoed recent legislation slashing the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s (HTA’s) budget and practical ability to fully carry out its new strategic plan focused on destination management.

Critical as that immediate decision is, the broader issue is how to assure an effective and ongoing tourism management system.

We’ve tried before. The state created a short-lived “Tourism Impact Management System” in the 1980s. HTA adopted a 2005 plan that envisioned many public and private agencies working to improve tourism, but found it had no authority to get other agencies to fulfill commitments.

HTA has both budgetary and authority constraints, and it suffers from a widespread perception that is mostly a marketing agency. It may be time to think about a new system. At the same time, HTA has been started seriously working on these issues — e.g., the new “Destination Management Action Plans” developed with counties — and it should not be casually discarded or financially crippled.

The public largely agrees. In our survey question about HTA and destination management, fewer than 10% of residents would “eliminate the HTA and have no other agency for marketing or guiding tourism in Hawaii.”

Yet, just 14% would “leave HTA as it is.” Of the remainder, 17% were unsure; 24% would keep HTA just for marketing and not destination management; and the largest portion, 35%, would keep the HTA but give it more authority for its tourism management mission. These numbers don’t provide a clear verdict.

The survey more plainly showed resident desire to rein in perceived tourism excess. About half would limit visitor numbers “if possible,” and the vast majority of residents (78%) would be happy to see tourists charged to use parks and required to make reservations at heavily-used beaches and trails.

In fact, a 57% majority chose “managing particular crowded places” as a better general policy option than “limiting overall number of visitors” (37%).

But who coordinates the “managing,” if HTA is eliminated or weakened?

Other models exist. In Iceland, the agencies responsible for marketing are separate from those doing overall economic planning and impact corrections. Destinations such as Barcelona have established standing tourism advisory councils with ongoing discussions among community, industry, environmentalists and legislators.

In our survey, this “standing advisory council” idea won more than 2-to-1 approval among those with clear opinions (34% “yes” to 15% “no”), though a plurality of residents understandably wanted more details about how it might be done.

Managing tourism is not simple. We lack agreement on how much our “crowding” is due to visitors vs. residents. The survey found about 75% thought tourists are at least partly responsible, with fewer thinking residents are even partly responsible.

But our fear is that if we don’t fortify the existing system for destination management — or develop a new one — we’ll keep getting whip-sawed by economic crises and political winds.

We call on the state to charge a task force with community, industry, HTA, academic and government membership to study new tourism governance models from elsewhere (including revenue streams); get substantial feedback; then make recommendations to the Legislature.

Let’s either thoughtfully commit to the HTA model or thoughtfully change it in systematic ways.

———

More online: See the full survey report at https://publicpolicycenter.manoa.hawaii.edu.

Colin Moore is director of the Public Policy Center at University of Hawaii-Manoa; consultant John Knox worked with the Hawaii Tourism Authority on recent strategic plans but expresses his own opinion here.