Letter: High costs will drive tourists to other places

Another increase in hotel taxes. What does it mean? Who are the ones to end up paying? The tourist, of course.

It means “killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.” Keep raising the hotel rates, and tourists will be discouraged to find vacationing in Hawaii is too costly. Then they will find other places like Mexico, the Caribbean or Europe to visit. Like the death of the sugar cane and pineapple industries, will Hawaii face the death of tourism? How many people will be out of a job?

And the cost of living here keeps increasing. Every month, the price of plate lunches keeps rising, nothing less than $10; rental for a single studio apartment is $12,000 to $15,000 a year, with no price controls in sight.

Yes. “ALOHA, TOURIST” — not the welcoming aloha, but the “goodbye” aloha.

Jie T. Ling

Makiki

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