Hawaii might cost more, but it’s worth it

Star-Advertiser interviews with tourists who have been staying in Waikiki recently are instructive about why our visitor industry is such a success: Basically, Hawaii is a great place to visit.

Not only is it warm and mostly sunny, it has beautiful beaches and mountains, lots of entertainment and friendly residents. Phoenix or Las Vegas — cheaper alternatives to Hawaii — also are warm and sunny, but the beaches there are missing in action. Mexico is better, perhaps, but it’s still not Hawaii, where English is the main language, there is political stability and everyone uses American money.

Hawaii’s challenge now, apparently, is to stay uppermost in the minds of people from elsewhere who are doing their vacation planning, to let them know that it might cost a few more dollars to visit here, but overall it’s worth it. As for those of us who live here? Sweeeeet.

State board fighting rearguard action

A report Friday that accreditation of security guards in Hawaii is seriously backlogged was somewhat perplexing.

It was in 2010 that the Legislature approved a law to require by June 30, 2013, that Hawaii’s estimated 10,500 guards go through an eight-hour instructional class, get fingerprinted and background checked and obtain a registration card from the state Board of Private Detectives and Guards. Yet, after more than two years worth of lead time, only 4,500 of the ID cards had been issued out of about 7,700 applications that were received, which is causing some grief for private security guard companies whose employees have not all yet been able to comply.

What is to blame? Lack of staff on the board and a last-minute rush by the guards to apply, perhaps. Or the standards themselves, which are more complex and difficult to meet. Let’s hope with a little more time and patience, the process will smooth itself out.