We have seen it all before.
A recent newspaper headline stated, "Visitor arrivals drop." Are we surprised? Of course not.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority promptly blamed the decline in aircraft seat availability, forgetting that airlines are not in the business of promoting destinations, but in the business of serving the destinations where demand is high.
Sure, the economy is still in disarray and another decline in tourism is to be expected. However, it would be wrong to hang all the blame on the airlines’ seat reduction and on the economy. We seem to be prone to rush into unwarranted enthusiasm, raising expectations, rushing to build and build more and more ugly skyscrapers without really analyzing what today’s visitors are looking for while choosing a vacation. We get excited when we read headlines like, "Consumer spending is up." Of course it is. It doesn’t mean necessarily that visitors buy more; it means that goods cost more, that’s all.
People still travel and take vacations. The difference is that right now the availability exceeds the demand and consumers have plenty of choices on where to go and get the best value for their money. They don’t want endless rows of shops; they can buy the same stuff at the many outlets in their home town at a much cheaper price. They don’t want traffic gridlock, filthy public restrooms, overpriced eateries and dirty beaches littered with tents, rubbish and human waste.
Tourism is our main industry and we should not take it for granted that visitors will come, no matter what. The time has come for us here in Hawaii to do some self-examination and make up our minds as to what we want to be as a tourist destination.
Hawaii seems to have lost its identity as an affordable and desirable tropical paradise, with beautiful weather, pristine beaches, unspoiled scenery and plenty of aloha spirit — a paradise that welcomed visitors with open arms, offered them relaxing and lazy days in the sun, and all at a price that was affordable.
We had a blend of new and older buildings, restaurants and little stores that were attractive and fun to visit. Hawaii had a perfect niche with the average American and foreign visitor. Waikiki welcomed kamaainas with special warmth, making us feel that we belonged here.
We should have learned a good lesson during the frenzy of the ’90s. The Japanese tourists arrived with their appetite for designer clothes and designer accessories, and we got mesmerized and seduced by their spending power. Quick-thinking developers and shortsighted hotel executives rushed to redesign Hawaii. Up went a glut of nondescript skyscrapers, fancy but useless shopping malls and trendy restaurants that few could patronize. Gone were the affordable family hotels, the affordable eateries, the cute little shops. The price of the new refurbished hotels, shops and restaurants made it off-limits for most residents and visitors alike. And then it all changed.
Now we are doing it again. A few months of increase in visitor arrivals made us believe that we have found El Dorado again. We get excited when some airline adds a flight or two here, without thinking that as quickly as the airlines add flights, just as quickly they discontinue them when demand drops.
Maybe it is time to realize that we are not the high-rollers’ playground that we dreamed to be, and never will be. We may need to go back to the basics. Initially it may be financially painful to some but in the long run, it could be a permanent cure for our debilitated tourism industry.
When the economy recovers — and it always does — hopefully Hawaii will once again have identified its niche, learned the visitors’ needs and wants, and understood the very fact that Hawaii was loved for what it once was: Hawaii.
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On vacation: "On Politics" columnist Richard Borreca is on vacation.
