Help Hawaii tourists stay safe

Welcome to our island paradise. Careful you don’t get killed.

While nobody’s suggesting that this is the overture that tourists should get, Hawaii’s natural beauty comes with the toll of hazards that nature exacts. The recent series of fatal incidents serves as yet another reminder that the challenge of educating visitors about the risks is an ongoing one, requiring constant vigilance and refinement.

It appears that the state’s public safety officials and leaders of the tourism industry have sensed the urgency of the problem and are making improvements aimed at raising awareness. Kudos for that, but the conversation about the issue should continue and broaden, bringing in more insights and additional strategies.

The statistics would give anyone pause, of course. As of Thursday, the toll so far in 2013 was five drownings, four traffic fatalities and two falls from cliffs, with all the victims being people visiting Hawaii with thoughts only of vacation leisure. That’s well ahead of the usual pace that results in the more typical 60-70 accidental deaths for nonresidents in a given year.

Jessica Lani Rich, who heads the nonprofit Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii, is in the unenviable position of outreach to distraught families in such cases. Her general impression of the accidental fatality cases sent to the society is that visitors themselves take unwarranted risks. Many feel empowered while in the vacation frame of mind, she said, trying new experiences without being fully informed about potential perils.

That’s undoubtedly correct, and the need for visitors to take personal responsibility for their own safety cannot be overlooked.

But the industry that wants them here has a part to play in apprising them of the facts, too. The visitor society and the state’s Hawaii Tourism Authority plan to release an online brochure with tips in multiple languages, a resource that will be distributed to various industry entities, including tourism marketing agencies.

That’s a reasonable step, but much more can and should be done. Leaders in the industry should, for example, urge more airlines bound for Hawaii as well as interisland carriers to screen videos giving passengers the safety heads-up. These can and should be localized with warnings of seasonal changes. The concern about winter’s high surf comes to mind as the most pointed example, with the recent drownings on Kauai’s north shore. Tourists simply are not accustomed to such conditions and should be made aware that even the more placid ocean scenes can conceal powerful — and deadly — undercurrents.

Informing visitors is no longer a simple task of disseminating information to concierges and tour groups, although that remains a critical component of any plan. Increasingly, tourists are self-directed, finding leads to "secret" hideaways which, by their very nature, are largely unguarded and not vetted for safety hazards.

The Internet has enabled this, and it can be a tool that can be used for visitor outreach, too. Beyond the more static online brochures being planned, full Web portals could be created, to which tourists could be directed, that pull together information about hiking trails, surf spots and the like. Community organizations such as hiking groups and surfing clubs could be tapped for some advisories from the grassroots, too. Part of the site could be a "wiki" element that accepts community contributions.

That may be a longer-range project, but partners in its sponsorship and maintenance could be assembled to start the work. The tourism market has changed, with many people coming for return visits that they largely plan on their own. Hawaii simply must keep up with that reality.