Fresh off the bus from Waikiki, Marcia and Barry Whitaker glanced up from their This Week tourist magazine and tried to get their bearings at Smith and Hotel streets.
"We’re a little lost," said Marcia Whitaker, a visitor from western Australia.
Eager to explore Oahu outside of Waikiki, the Whitakers got off the bus near Hotel Street and headed for the circled area on the magazine map marked "Chinatown."
But other than the map and a one-paragraph description, there wasn’t much information about what to do or where to go once they arrived.
Some Chinatown residents and supporters say their community needs to do more to educate tourists about Chinatown’s attractions.
Tourists, once they discover Chinatown, love it, said Michael Packard, a tour guide with Segway of Hawaii, which takes visitors on Segway tours through Chinatown.
"I think its underrated," he said. "I think it doesn’t get as much publicity as it should. I think when you go to other states, like California, Chinatown is really pushed."
"They (tourists) want to see it (Chinatown). They want to take pictures. They’re fascinated by the lei shops and the open markets," said Lynne Matusow, the secretary for the Downtown Neighborhood Board. "I don’t think there are many places that have markets like this. They’re very different than a supermarket."
"We’ve been trying to turn Chinatown into a tourist attraction for years," she added.
Karen Motosue, vice president of the Hawaii Heritage Center, a volunteer organization that operates a Chinatown history center in a storefront on Smith Street and offers tours, said most local residents have the wrong idea about Chinatown.
"People in Hawaii think of it as a dirty place, where there’s homeless people and crime," Motosue said. "They don’t see it as a place where they should take their tourist friends. But we see it as an enriching experience for people."
Because of that perception, some local hotel concierge desks discourage visitors from going to Chinatown, Motosue said.
"I think it (crime) is largely a perception problem and not reality," said state Rep. Karl Rhoads, who represents the Chinatown area. "I think if you look at the crime rate, it’s not as bad as Waikiki."
Packard said tourists have to look past some of the problems in Chinatown to really appreciate it.
"It gets a little rough going down Hotel Street and you can smell the urine and see the homeless down there," he said.
But, he noted, "there are homeless in Waikiki. There’s homeless in Manoa. … Like every big city, it’s something you have and you just have to deal with it."
Motosue said the other problem with promoting Chinatown is a lack of money. Her organization is made up of volunteers, she said, and doesn’t have the resources to print and publish tourist maps of Chinatown that can be distributed in Waikiki.
"You have to put money and resources into it," she said.
Rhoads said that because many of the merchants in Chinatown are small immigrant businesses, they may not have the resources to spend on advertising and they are not as organized as businesses in other areas.
In April, the Arts District Merchants Association asked the Downtown Neighborhood Board for its support in attracting a $162,000 state grant to allow The Arts at Marks Garage to establish and staff a Visitor Information Center to orient and educate visitors on how to patronize Chinatown.
The board voted to support the idea, but board member Chu Lan Shubert-Kwock said she thought the center should be at the Maunakea Marketplace in the center of Chinatown rather than at Marks Garage.
Burton White, the art director and general manager of the Hawaii Theatre on Bethel Street, said tourists already visit Iolani Palace and the state Capitol, but it’s difficult to get them to walk a few blocks more to Chinatown.
White said food is a big attraction to Chinatown, but merchants have to be able to offer and market other attractions.
Part of the problem, he said, is that the different merchant groups do not always agree on the best direction for the future of Chinatown.
Matthew Gray, who operates a food tour of Chinatown, said the area "is not really being promoted," adding, "It’s not being shown off. There’s so much to see."
Over-commercialization might change the complexion of Chinatown.
"But I think it would be a long, long way before it becomes a touristy district," Gray said.
Motosue said Honolulu’s Chinatown is unique in that every immigrant group is part of its story. Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Laotians, Portuguese, Greeks and Jews have all lived in Chinatown alongside the Chinese.
The mix of food and culture is something found only in Hawaii, she said.
"If tourists are looking for a new experience that they can only get in Hawaii, they should come here," she said.
