Resident survey: Quality of life takes back burner to tourism
With a cruise ship anchored just outside the harbor, people walk along Front Street in Lahaina in January 2022. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
Maui County residents are slightly more receptive to the tourism industry as a driver of economic benefits, but still feel that the quality of life is on the back burner, according to a recent survey.
Data from the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism’s Fall 2022 Resident Sentiment Survey show that a whopping 81 percent of responding Maui County residents strongly or somewhat agree that the island is being run for tourists at the expense of local people.
The fall survey gathered responses from 811 residents on Oahu, 451 on Hawaii island, 397 in Maui County and 290 on Kauai.
Among the Maui County participants, 58 percent were born and raised in Hawaii and 19 percent have lived in the county for over 20 years.
Less than half of Hawaii residents (44 percent) agreed that tourism is being better managed on their island and 67 percent said that tax dollars should be spent to manage tourism’s impacts in their community, which visitor industry officials say is becoming more of a trend.
“The tide is turning in the right direction due largely to our collective destination management efforts in partnership with community stakeholders, government agencies, and industry partners,” said John De Fries, president and CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority. “We continue to reinvest funding directly into the community to effect meaningful change and mitigate tourism’s impacts in hotspot areas throughout the state.”
Resident sentiment has been measured since 1988.
The slight improvements in Maui County overall were due to significant gains made in Central and East Maui, which perceived the industry more favorably, according to the report. West Maui and Molokai communities remained unchanged while residents of Lanai continue to be more receptive to tourism and its benefits compared to other areas in the county.
Resident attitudes toward tourism are now being shaped by the balance between economic benefits and quality of life, along with tourism management efforts that improve this balance, HTA said.
The top three drivers of resident sentiment in the fall survey were job opportunities, support of local businesses and the creation of shopping, dining and entertainment options for residents.
In 2019, visitors spent nearly $18 billion in Hawaii, which produced $2 billion in state tax revenues to support local schools, hospitals and infrastructure, the report said.
Many across Maui County have still continued to express concerns of “overtourism” and its impacts on the environment, quality of life and cultural resources.
About 43 percent of Maui County respondents said “tourism has brought more benefits than problems,” while the rest feel that the industry has brought more issues.
Still, 61 percent of Maui County residents agreed when presented with the statement of “tourism is worth the issues associated with it,” which was similar to the responses from other counties.
The majority of responding Lanai residents (78 percent) agreed that the industry has brought some benefit to their island, where two main luxury hotels are major employers and economic drivers.
Among the Maui County residents saying tourism creates more problems than benefits, overcrowding was the biggest problem (73 percent) followed by the damage to the environment (71 percent).
Higher costs of living, increased traffic and lack of respect for the culture were the next biggest problems for 70 percent of responding residents.
A majority of residents (57 percent) strongly agree that the authentic presentation of the Native Hawaiian language and culture is important and that visitors need to be educated about protecting Hawaii’s natural environment and cultural resources (70 percent).
On the other hand, residents were fairly split in their assessment that tourism contributes to Native Hawaiian culture (47 percent either said they agree or don’t know, while 53 percent disagree) and were only slightly positive that tourism helps to fund stewardship of Hawaii’s resources.
Sentiment was largely unchanged in opinions that their “island is being run for tourists” or that they are “too dependent on the industry.”
Statewide, 67 percent agreed with the statement that their island is being run for tourists at the expense of local people.
Residents of Molokai, which is less reliant on tourism jobs than Maui or Lanai, were particularly critical of tourism and its impact on their households — only 26 percent of Molokai residents say the industry is “mostly positive” for themselves and their family. For Maui County as a whole, it was 35 percent.
This sentiment was similar across the state as 55 percent of Hawaii residents said tourism has had a mostly positive impact on the state, while only 37 percent felt that tourism has been mostly positive for them and their family.
While residents’ perceptions improved slightly on the effort being made to balance economic benefits with quality of life, many still believe they don’t have a say in tourism matters.
More than half (66 percent) feel like they do not have a voice in Maui County’s tourism development decisions, which is on trend for the rest of the counties.
State and county officials have offered some tourism management solutions, such as education, encouraging visitors to volunteer and changing laws on visitor accommodations, such as capping transient rentals.
Between 34 to 38 percent of Maui County respondents agreed that tax dollars should be spent to manage the impacts of tourism in their community. Meanwhile, 61 percent of Maui County residents (compared to 53 percent statewide) said it was “extremely important” to eliminate illegal vacation rentals on the island.
Officials have also looked to charge visitors for the public services they use. One example is the Park Maui pilot program that Maui County is rolling out to require nonresidents to pay for parking at county parking lots and beaches. Of the survey respondents, 41 percent said it was “extremely important” to charge visitor access fees to state parks and trails.
“Stronger sentiment that tourism is worth the issues aligns with greater support for tourism management strategies, such as educating and encouraging visitors to give back, while those who say it is not worth the issues are more likely to support management strategies, such as eliminating illegal rentals and stopping the building of additional visitor units,” the report said. “This suggests that these residents are seeing little benefit from the industry and the additional tax revenues are not enough to compensate them for the problems generated.”
The fall survey was conducted by Omnitrak Group Inc. and was fielded from Oct. 19 through Dec. 3. Residents in all four counties participated in the survey by phone and online.
For the full report, visit www.hawaiitourismauthority.org/research/evaluation-performance-measures.
* Dakota Grossman can be reached at dgrossman@mauinews.com.
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- With a cruise ship anchored just outside the harbor, people walk along Front Street in Lahaina in January 2022. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo