Tourism has its ups and downs but many don’t see how it impacts those who call Hawaii home, with tourism being a huge part of the economy it has caused the inability to afford the basic necessities like shelter. Hawaii has one of the highest housing prices in the county, with the median house price standing at $713,000 residents spending an average of 42% of their income on rent. Hawaiian households living in poverty grew from 9% to 15% in 2022.
With tourism representing about a quarter of Hawaii’s economic activity it supports over 216,000 jobs with that being in 2019 alone with 17.8 billion dollars in visitor spending which contributed to more than $2 billion tax revenue to the state. More than 10 million visitors came to Hawaii in 2019 that is 7 times more than the state’s population. Despite the economic revenue that the industry generates, Native Hawaiians point out that residents aren’t partaking in those profits.
In 2020 when tourism was at its all time low it did more damage than most think, with those living in low income areas with the high cost of living led to an increase on food banks and social services that were provided due to the plateful of money coming in each day it’s tourism, when COVID hit it shut down most transportation and you couldn’t travel to Hawaii for a while it ultimately was the economy’s down fall and Hawaii still hasn’t fully recovered from Covid 19 impact.
Links
https://assure-test.com/covid-19s-impact-on-hawaiis-economy-tourism-and-recovery/
https://seagrant.soest.hawaii.edu/rebooting-hawaiis-visitor-industry/
https://www.marketplace.org/2023/10/11/is-it-ethical-to-vacation-in-hawaii/
