Instead of “chirp, chirp, chirp,” most days Choon James hears “beep, beep, beep” at what should be her quiet North Shore country home adjacent to a seabird sanctuary.

That’s because tourists come by the car- and bus-load to see Laie Point State Wayside, which begins where James’ residential neighborhood dead-ends.

Once a secret spot for locals, Laie Point isn’t the most welcoming place for tourists. It’s in a residential neighborhood, so the parking is extremely limited. A car has to pull out for another to take its place, likely in an illegal spot. Signs ban tour buses from parking, and there aren’t any bathrooms or water fountains.

But that hasn’t deterred tourists from flocking to the area, which social media has elevated to a top North Shore attraction. It didn’t help that the rocky coastline and seabird sanctuary were featured in a cliff-jumping scene from the 2008 film “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” Tourists try to replicate that jump, sometimes with disastrous results.

“Laie Point is a microcosm for what’s happening all over Hawaii,” James said. “We’ve got cars lined up and down our neighborhood. Tour buses regularly block our driveways and unload tourists onto our properties. We’ve got illegal vacation rentals, ‘monster’ homes, tourists sleeping in vans. One of our sea cliffs recently collapsed, probably from encroachment into the (shoreline) setbacks. The neighborhood is so crowded that emergency responders struggle to get in and out.”

Hawaii is the Aloha State, but residents like James are becoming increasingly unhappy with the rise in visitor arrivals. Hawaii received 9.9 million visitors in 2018 — the seventh consecutive year of arrivals and visitor spending growth.

Some residents, especially those who work in the visitor industry, have capitalized on the jump in arrivals, which has pumped billions into Hawaii’s economy. Last year tourism brought in more than $17.8 billion in visitor spending and supported some 217,000 jobs. Alternative accommodations, which have been estimated to be a $1.2 billion industry on Oahu alone, have had a role to play in the success of Hawaii’s tourism economy, too.

Still, according to the results of a study released Thursday by the Hawaii Tourism Authority, a backlash is rising along with arrivals. More residents than in any survey period since 2009 agreed with the statement, “This island is being run for tourists at the expense of local people,” and fewer agreed with the statement, “Tourism has brought more benefits than problems.”

State legislators, who are hearing more complaints about tourism from their constituents, are pushing back, too. There are 17 bills aimed at managing vacation rentals, which have grown past zoning boundaries. A bill designed to increase tourism’s contributions to the state has come up again despite having been vetoed by Gov. David Ige last year. If it passes, it would increase the cost of a Hawaii vacation for hotel guests by applying the hotel room tax to all hotel charges, from resort fees to food and beverages.

A major problem is that so far there’s been no end in sight to the growing tourism counts, said Charlene “Auntie Charlie” Silva, who lives on Oahu’s North Shore. Years ago a drop in Hawaii hotel rooms would have reduced the visitor count, but a rise in vacation rentals has allowed Hawaii tourism to continue growing well past the state’s resort areas, Silva said.

“We have no problem against the tourists. We have a problem against them being in our neighborhoods — they aren’t zoned for that,” she said. “Government officials always talk about what added tourism arrivals bring to the state, but they forget to subtract the added costs.”

According to a study released by HTA last week, Hawaii hotel units fell to 43,857, a more than 2 percent drop in inventory from 2017. However, vacation rental units rose more than 3 percent to 13,082, a figure the study acknowledged is probably underrepresented. Vacation rentals, many of them illegal, can now be found in almost every ZIP code in the state. Some 30,135 were advertised in 2018.

Erik Kloninger, principal at Kloninger &Sims LLC, said, “Alternative accommodations are playing an increasingly vital role in Hawaii’s visitor industry as more guests travel to the islands, and hotel occupancy rates in some areas are near max capacity.”

Not all residents are unhappy with the tourism sprawl. The growth of neighborhood tourism has been a boon for businesses like Morning Brew Coffee in Kailua, which has become a vacation rental stronghold.

Peter Anderson of Morning Brew Coffee said, “There is already a limited amount of accommodation options for visitors to stay on the Windward side. If we reduce these options further, it will discourage these visitors from coming to our neighborhoods, and it will definitely have a negative impact on our business.”

But critics of the spread of tourism into neighborhoods say the trend has strained infrastructure, increased the bill for emergency response services and torn the fabric of their neighborhoods. Those who live in suburban and country neighborhoods are especially bothered by the extra congestion and noise.

Keith Vieira, principal of KV &Associates Hospitality Consulting, said vacation rentals have a role to play in Hawaii’s tourism economy but that they must be managed.

“I’m not saying that we should stop it, we need them,” Vieira said. “But we need to have control. You can’t have constant proliferation and horror stories like six people sleeping in a van at the beach and flaunting it. That’s when people go a little crazy.”

North Shore Oahu resident Jill Thompson said she’s also concerned with managing natural resources and neighborhood attractions.

“I’d like to see permits and limits for natural resources, attractions and parks that take into account the carrying capacity,” said Thompson, whose family has lived on Oahu’s North Shore for four generations. “What’s happening is disrespectful.”

Paul Nash, who lives in the Hokulele subdivision near the Haiku Stairs, has grown weary of the increase in helicopter flyovers. More helicopters are coming to satisfy visitors’ demand to see Hawaii by air and to rescue tourists from the Haiku Stairs, which is a forbidden attraction, he said.

“We’ve got anywhere from three to 10 a day flying over. Some have gotten as close as 100 feet above our house. It’s an invasion of our lifestyle and privacy,” Nash said. “We had to adjust to traffic noise when the H-3 highway came in, but this is way beyond that.”

HTA President and CEO Chris Tatum, who took the reins of the organization in late December, said HTA is restructuring, refocusing its resources on community outreach and preservation of Hawaiian culture and natural resources — two areas the survey showed would improve local residents’ perception of tourism.

For the first time, HTA also plans to support legislative efforts to eliminate illegal vacation rentals and enforce laws that improve quality of life for residents, thereby increasing visitor satisfaction.

“We’re a tourism management agency. We’ve got to engage not only the Hawaiian community, but the community in general on how valuable tourism is and what we contribute not just in financial contributions, but also in engaging in events and experiences,” Tatum said. “If they are excited about tourism when interacting with our visitors, they’ll be positive and not have a negative perception.”