It’s time to take our self-esteem’s temperature. The annual Travel + Leisure magazine "America’s Favorite Cities" survey pits Honolulu against 34 other cities — and we could do a whole lot better. Oh sure, we had four consecutive years as the No. 1 city for a romantic escape, but that fell to No. 4 last year.
T+L is offering a chance at a $25,000 trip to people who rate their city, and as many others as they’d like, on more than 50 characteristics spread across eight categories: Best Times to Visit; Nightlife; People; Quality of Life and Visitor Experience; Shopping; Food/Drink/ Restaurants; Type of Trip; and Culture.
Despite our legendary aloha spirit and our dependence on the visitors who flock to our shores and spend their money here, our own opinion of the friendliness of Honolulu’s people hit a low last year — we ranked ourselves 21st. Our visitors also gave us a 9, our lowest visitor-generated rating since the survey started in 2007.
Is our legendary aloha spirit just that — a legend?
"I think it is hard to make a living here," said state Rep. Corinne Ching. However, it is hard to make a living in a lot of places. "People are just struggling, and they might not feel they’re being appreciated, so it’s hard to put on a happy face … but it matters," she said.
One of her staffers is from people-loving Charleston, S.C., a serial winner in the category. In Charleston and in high-friendliness Savannah, Ga., historic preservation is taken seriously, Ching noted.
"I found that people feel happier when people feel a place is quaint and charming. It lends itself to civility when the architecture speaks to that, too," she said. "A veranda tells you, ‘I’m sitting out here, I’m part of the community and you are welcome to come say hi,’" she said.
Ching contrasts that to the effort to knock down the historic Waikiki Natatorium.
In the old days "to be gracious was important. Maybe somewhere along the way we didn’t pass down the baton, but our environment doesn’t convey that, either," she said.
It is crucial that we "bring back the old Hawaii," Ching said.
"If we allow Honolulu to look like ‘Everywhere USA’ or ‘Everywhere Metropolitan in the World,’ why leave your own town?"
She points to efforts in her district, Liliha, to bring back old-neighborhood charm. "We have a community fountain, a clock and benches. Even a bench is a symbol. It says, ‘I care about you, sit down. … It has made my people so happy.’"
T+L survey-takers identifying themselves as residents ranked Honolulu seventh in friendliness of people in 2007, as did our visitors. We felt slightly better about ourselves in 2008 despite the recession, and gave ourselves a 6, while visitors put us into the top five. In 2009 we gave ourselves another 6, but we slipped to No. 8 among visitors. Honolulu’s friendly-people ranking slumped to 10 in 2010, but visitors put us at No. 4. Again, last year was our worst year in this survey both among residents and visitors.
The culture part of the T+L survey is high-maka-maka and fails to ask about the Hawaiian and other ethnic cultural traditions that richly set us apart from anywhere else. That shortcoming means Honolulu won’t rank well in that category, but so many other aspects of the survey seem like low-hanging mangoes for us. We should grab ’em.
What can we start doing right, and can we do it more often?
The survey is live at TravelandLeisure.com/afc, with voting open until Aug. 1.
Kids welcome
Four Hawaii restaurants are among the Top 75 Kid-Friendly Restaurants in the U.S., as named in the 2012 Diners’ Choice Awards from OpenTable.com, an online dining reservation and review site.
Cafe Pesto in Kawaihae on Hawaii island, Oceanarium in the Pacific Beach Hotel in Waikiki, Pagoda Floating Restaurant in Honolulu and the Honolulu location of the national chain Buca di Beppo won the honor based on customer reviews collected from June 1, 2011, to May 31.
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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
