Tourism vital economically but growth imperils appeal

If it isn’t one thing, it’s another. Or so it seems with Hawaii’s indispensable tourism industry.

As record-breaking hotel room rates, revenue and visitor counts intoxicate corporate innkeepers, booking agencies and tour operators, there are lamentations about space squeezes, curbs and delays for new hotel construction and a fear that those conditions will leave the industry, its investors and the islands high and dry.

At the same time, groups and individuals concerned about the quality of life for residents and the natural environment fear that a push for more buildings rising higher and wider across Oahu — and maybe even across neighbor islands — will be too much to bear, that more, more, more will eventually bring less as Hawaii covers over its appeal as a beautiful place for a vacation.

Not-so-conspicuous effects include stretching water resources, the need for more sewer lines and treatment, roads and repairs and energy development.

For decades, through thick and thin, tourism has struggled to find a balance between growth of the
industry and preserving the allure of the islands that draws people to visit.

Near the turn of the century, the goal was not to boost the number of tourists, but to attract the ones who would open their wallets wider.

This obviously hasn’t been fulfilled, as good intentions were overcome by the desire for hard cash from all comers, whether they be elite big-spenders or the masses.

So, says one economist, let’s get real. Growth is the way to go. Build more hotels or tourists will go elsewhere as demand prices up a limited supply.

Visitors can’t lay out money if they have no place to lay their heads, so give them more pillows and beds.

But few tourists will want to spend any amount for a sight-seeing drive that shows hotel, luxury retailer, hotel, department store, chain restaurant, hotel parking garage, shopping mall and yet another chain restaurant with glimpses of beach and ocean in between.

Tourists have to hop the moat that is the Ala Wai Canal and head toward the North Shore or the far west side to see stunning expanses of sea and mountains Oahu can still claim, at least for the time being. Of course, their tours are leisurely paced, constricted by snarls of traffic on narrow perimeter roads.

To keep the pulse in paradise, fresh blood must be drawn through new resorts. A good chunk of west Oahu has already been tapped and the North Shore will likely be next to provide a transfusion with resorts at Kahuku and Laie.

The question is: Will they keep coming if we keep building?

Balance remains elusive.

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Cynthia Oi can be reached at coi@staradvertiser.com.