Only twice in my life have I lived in cities that were bona-fide, year-round tourist destinations, and I complained heartily with the best of the lifelong residents about too many clueless people on the subways and too many families taking up the entire sidewalk as they ambled while I needed to hustle.
So I don’t know firsthand what that constant relationship with tourism would be like for residents of places such as Maui and Venice and Barcelona. But based on my limited experience, I can guess that “love-hate” probably sums it up pretty accurately. Livelihoods depend on tourism, but that doesn’t mean you have to love every guest who steps foot on your shores. Everyone working at the property level of the hotel industry must feel the same way. That’s why I admire people in this industry so much; you all have levels of patience I will never have.
This is on my mind this week as I learn and see more about events unfolding in Maui. The loss is simply astounding. Personal loss of lives and homes is devastating. Then businesses and jobs come second.
As we've seen especially with hurricane aftermath in the Caribbean, loss at these levels has an additional layer of complication in high tourism locations.
This New York Times article was a real eye-opener on some of the conflicts playing out as this tourist destination of an island deals with tremendous loss of life, livelihood and land.
Many residents want tourists to stay away because they need time and space to wrap their heads around what happened and what’s next. Others fear losing the lifeline of tourism dollars. And many tourists don’t know what to do either: Keep that honeymoon/incentive trip/bucket-list vacation and inject money into the local economy, or cancel because a displaced resident needs your hotel room or Airbnb more?
Hawaii's islands are tourist destinations and fingers crossed always will be. But many residents, particularly since the pandemic, are increasingly vocal about limiting tourism because of its strain on resources — even though tourism of course is the state’s lifeline. This tension has played out in politics and how the state markets itself.
Today the official message from the state’s government is to stay away from the affected areas in West Maui, but the rest of the island is open for business.
Some residents quoted in news coverage agree; many others want tourists to stay far away from all of Maui, even all of Hawaii, right now. So who’s right?
That “who’s right?” question is at the heart of any conversation about responsible tourism.
There are a lot of stakeholders in tourism: Local residents, local governments, travelers. You can’t paint any of these groups with a broad brush, yet they have to find consensus or nobody thrives. Consensus in Hawaii as in many other global destinations doesn’t necessarily mean responsible, either. More and more in recent decades it does, but it’s certainly not a given.
Whew. These are such difficult decisions to make, because data, politics and profits historically don’t play well together.
Globally we’ve all experienced a lot of external forces that have an impact on travel so far this year, be they disaster-related or otherwise. The issue of responsible tourism — whether that responsibility is to natural resources, human resources or both — is only going to intensify. I liked this recent Hotel News Now column on extreme tourism by Boston University’s Leora Lanz, by the way, and I hope you read it.
I hope the responsible tourism discussion becomes more mainstream. This industry needs to have that conversation.
I support the Hawaii Community Foundation. You can donate to the Maui Strong Fund here.
Email me, or find me on Twitter or LinkedIn.
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or CoStar Group and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concern.