Lee Cataluna: Kauai feels the burden of overtourism

The new Kauai Tourism Strategic Plan has at its heart a stunning premise — that tourism has reached capacity on the island.

It’s stunning not because it’s a new thought. Residents have been grumbling about crowded roads, packed beaches, trampled hiking trails and “secret spots” overrun by visitors for years.

But this document, which bears the title, “Refocusing Tourism to Find Balance” was sponsored by the County of Kauai, the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association Kauai and the Kauai Visitors Bureau, not a hui of disgruntled residents.

Coming from “those guys,” it’s an amazing admission that things have gone far enough. Those guys always wanted more.

But here it is, a plan for tourism where the goal is not to increase numbers, but to manage the impact of tourism so that the island isn’t ruined for everyone, tourists and residents alike.

The opening paragraph reads:

“In the past, the metrics for successful tourism have been economy­-based: room occupancy, number of visitors, total expenditures of visitors, visitor industry contribution to government revenues and the local economy, and spending per visitor.

“On Kauai, as in many world-class visitor destinations, times have changed. We are at a tipping point and the risk of over tourism threatens the environment, quality of life and the visitor experience. While the economic metrics of tourism are still vital, ‘quality of life’ metrics are now essential: quality of the visitor experience, impact of the visitor industry on local residents and the environment, and the quality of life of visitor industry employees.”

To quantify Kauai’s current overburdened situation, the island has a population of 72,159 and on average on a given day, 1 in 3 people on the 552-square-mile island is a tourist. In June of this year, the average daily visitor count on Kauai hit 33,386.

The strategic plan makes the point that it’s not just more people coming to Kauai; it’s how they’re spending their time, where they’re going and what they’re doing.

“In the past, when visitors mostly traveled in tour groups, stayed in hotels and got around on tour buses with a set itinerary, the impacts did not feel as great as they do now. Today, most visitors are free independent travelers, often staying in vacation rentals within communities, traveling in cars they rent for their entire stay and searching for special ‘undiscovered’ places (often found in social media) including places they should not be.”

The document is filled with those bon mots, those plain truths that locals have been saying for years. Maybe the difference is that now, the hotels are like, “Hey, all those tourists staying in illegal homestay should be spending money here!” and all the tour companies and visitor attractions are like, “Hey, stop hiking through private property. Come buy some stuff where we want you to buy stuff.”

In terms of what actions the plan suggests, there’s nothing dramatic like limiting number of flights into Lihue or putting an end to illegal vacation rentals or charging serious user fees at public parks. There are lots of words like engage, educate, manage and advocate, which are good words but not hard-edged quantitative words.

But it’s a start. The first step is admitting you have a problem.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.