HONOLULU – The State of Hawai‘i Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT) has issued the results of its Spring 2022 Resident Sentiment Survey. The survey found early signs of strengthening resident sentiment toward tourism are appearing and that the desire for destination management remains strong. It also showed that while residents who are aware of the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority’s (HTA) efforts to manage tourism are generally more positive towards tourism, awareness of these efforts is relatively low.
“It takes a collaborative effort to bring these destination management actions to fruition, from the respective steering committees and task force members HTA has convened in recent years, to the increased inter-agency coordination among state and county departments, visitor industry stakeholders, and the substantial array of community-based organizations engaged in cultural and natural resource stewardship and community enrichment programs,” said John De Fries, HTA president and CEO.
Support for regenerative tourism efforts and destination management continued as residents said it’s important to educate visitors and residents to mālama the islands and each other (91%) and encourage visitors to volunteer and give back during their visits to Hawai‘i (70%). Regarding vacation rentals, 77 per cent noted it’s important to eliminate illegal vacation rentals on their island and 64 per cent stated it’s important to stop approval of additional legal vacation rentals. Sixty-six per cent stated it’s important to not allow the building of additional hotel/condo/timeshare units on their island.
Resident support for visitor access fees to state parks and trails increased to 73 per cent, of which 43 per cent felt it’s extremely important.
Twenty-seven per cent of residents statewide were aware of the concepts “destination management” or “managed tourism.” Twenty-four per cent were aware of HTA’s Destination Management Action Plans.
Ninety-two per cent of residents agreed that visitors need to be educated about protecting Hawai‘i’s natural environment and cultural resources, 87 per cent agreed that authentic presentation of the Native Hawaiian language is important, 56 per cent agreed that tourism helps fund the stewardship of Hawai‘i’s natural resources parks and cultural sites, and 43 per cent agreed that tourism contributes to the perpetuation of Native Hawaiian culture and language.
Residents expressed strong support for using tax dollars to manage the impacts of tourism in their community (66%), rather than encourage tourism in their community (42%).
Fifty-four per cent (+5 per cent) of residents said they agreed that tourism has brought more benefits than problems, 36 per cent (no percentage change) felt that tourism has been “mostly positive for you and your family,” and 67 per cent (-1 per cent) agreed that their island is “being run for tourists at the expense of local people.”
Forty-six per cent (+2 per cent) of residents felt that more effort is being made to balance the economic benefits of tourism and residents’ quality of life, 41 per cent (+2 per cent) said tourism is being better managed on their island, and 27 per cent (+3 per cent) agreed with the statement, “I have a voice in my island’s tourism development decisions.”
Resident satisfaction is one of the overall Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of HTA’s 2020 – 2025 Strategic Plan. The other three KPIs are average daily visitor spending, visitor satisfaction, and total visitor spending.
Resident sentiment has been measured since 1988. The Spring 2022 Resident Sentiment Survey was conducted by Omnitrak Group, Inc., which was selected by DBEDT as the provider for this study. The survey was fielded from May 7 through July 30, 2022. Residents in all four counties participated in the survey by phone and online.
The results of the Spring 2022 survey are compared to the Fall 2021 Resident Sentiment Survey, which was conducted from November 8, 2021, through January 3, 2022.
