Eva Garcia, a visitor from San Luis Obispo, Calif., and her family recently volunteered to clean up Kahili Beach as part of The Ocean Friendly Visitor Program, a partnership between The Cliffs at Princeville and the Surf­rider Foundation’s Kauai Chapter.

“We had already visited and played in several of Kauai’s north shore beaches, all breathtakingly gorgeous, and the idea of spending a couple hours of our vacation helping clean up the coastline and ensure this paradise stays pristine seemed like a good time investment,” Garcia said.

The family filled two buckets with ocean debris such as fishing equipment, broken crates, ropes, foam floats, flip-flops, fishing line and garbage, including lighters, several toothbrushes, clothes hangers and a shampoo bottle. They also removed plastic that the birds, who nest in the cliffs near the beach, often confuse with food.

“I’m originally from Barcelona, and so I know what tourism does to a hometown. Maybe that’s why I’m a little bit more sensitive to that impact when I travel to other places,” she said. “I try to make my kids aware, ‘You are visiting but it’s where other people live, so you have to be mindful.’ Anything that we can do to give back, like the opportunity to clean up some beaches, we love doing that.”

A new study, which surveyed 463 Kauai residents, found that regenerative tourism programs like this one make the tourism industry and tourists more attractive to residents and could play a key role in helping Hawaii’s visitor industry recover from the pandemic.

Study co-author Jerry Agrusa, a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Travel Industry Management in the Shidler College of Business, said regenerative tourism asks visitors to travel with a mindset to leave a destination better than it was before they arrived, and seek authentic experiences that go beyond a traditional vacation.

Agrusa told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Sunday that the study, which was published in a June 2022 Journal of Travel Research article, provides direct evidence that regenerative tourism can help improve resident support for Hawaii tourism and tourism development.

He said Kauai was selected for the study because it was the first county to finish its Destination Management Action Plan, a Hawaii Tourism Authority planning effort to detail steps the community, the visitor industry and other sectors deem necessary to improve tourism over the next three years.

Agrusa added that another reason was that Kauai’s beauty was often mentioned by visitors in another study that he co-authored, called “What Tourists Want, a Sustainable Paradise,” which was published in February. In that earlier study, Argusa said almost 70% of the visitors surveyed said that they would pay extra to support cultural activities and sustainability.

Agrusa said key findings in the more recently published study, called “Linking Regenerative Travel and Residents’ Support for Tourism Development in Kauai Island (Hawaii): Moderating-Mediating effects of Travel-Shaming and Foreign Tourist Attractiveness,” were:

>> Regenerative travel positively affects residents’ support for tourism development.

>> Regenerative travel positively affects tourist attractiveness.

>> Travel shaming, especially during the pandemic, tempers the effects of regenerative travel on tourist attractiveness.

Agrusa said the study bodes well for HTA’s focus on destination management, which increased during the pandemic as community pushback against the visitor industry continued despite a tourism lockdown, where more than 20,000 jobs were lost in one month.

“Once you stop and you step back, you can see a better way,” he said. “One of the things that we were able to do is try to target the type of tourist that we want.”

During the pandemic, HTA worked with residents on all the major islands to develop DMAPs. In November 2020, HTA launched Malama Hawaii, an invitation to visitors to malama, or take care of, Hawaii by giving back to the destination.

Agrusa said observations in the study can further inform planning by Hawaii tourism and government officials as tourism continues recovering. At this point in Hawaii’s tourism recovery, Agrusa said, what Hawaii needs is for “the behavior of the tourists to match what we need in Hawaii.”

He said appropriate travel shaming can make a difference such as calling out visitors who disturb sea turtles and monk seals or who take up resources because they strayed from hiking paths. The study also found that regenerative tourism involves providing activities for visitors “that will allow destinations to heal, while counterbalancing the social, economic and environmental impacts of tourism.”

“Residents see the visitors working hand in hand with them to keep Kauai beautiful,” Agrusa said. “I believe regenerative tourism in Kauai has moved the needle. We need to do more of the same.”

Agrusa cited examples of effective regenerative tourism in Hawaii including replanting native tree species to offset the carbon footprint that is produced by flying to Hawaii, helping remove invasive plant species off hiking trails, and working in a taro patch to experience Hawaiian culture.

He said regenerative programs like those offered at The Cliffs at Princeville allow visitors to have enriched experiences, while fostering local support for tourism.

“We’re looking at not just sustaining things, but making it better,” Agrusa said.

Jim Braman, general manager of The Cliffs, said the resort has been named by Resort Club International as the most green resort out of 2,000-plus affiliated resorts in the United States, and was recognized by Gov. David Ige for achieving the Hawaii Green Business Award.

The resort also was recognized as a business of the year by the Rotary Club of Hanalei, a nod to its decision not to lay off employees during the pandemic as well as its regenerative tourism efforts, which expanded after it participated in Kauai’s DMAP process.

Braman said the DMAP took Kauai stakeholders from having conversations about how to improve tourism to developing concrete plans and actions. He said it also led to The Cliffs becoming the first Kauai hotel partner in the Surfrider Foundation’s Kauai Chapter’s Ocean Friendly Visitors Program, which protects the fragile health of Kauai’s oceans, reefs, beaches and marine life.

“When we started the program, I didn’t know how many people would volunteer for a beach cleanup during their vacation. As it turns out, the answer is a lot. We have some visitors every week,” Braman said. “Dr. Agrusa is 100% right. Regenerative tourism has the platform to do a huge amount of good for the island. We just need to get the word out.”